UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT LOS ANGELES
R E P 0 R T
INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS
L OISTD oi<r.
HELD JULY -S-LS, m9..
By E. C. WINES, D. D., LL. D.
UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER.
TO WHICH IS APPENDED
THE SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE NATIONAL PRISON ASSOCIATION
OF THE UNITED STATES, CONTAINING THE TRANSACTIONS
OF THE NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS,
HELD AT BALTIMORE, MARYLAND,
JANUARY 21-24, 1873.
WA SHTN^GTON:
GOYEENMENT PRINTING OFFICE,
1873.
V4V
To the Senate and House of Representatives :
I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State aud accom-
panying papers.
U. S. GRANT.
Washington, February 13, 1873.
Department of State,
Washington^ February 13, 1873.
Referring to the joint resolution of Congress, of the 20th March,
1871, authorizing the appointment, by the President, of a commissioner
to attend an International Congress on Penitentiary and Reformatory
Discipline, proposed to be held in Europe, I have the honor to transmit
herewith the report of Mr. E. C. Wines, appointed under the said res-
olution, of the congress which was held at London, together with an
^ appendix containing a summary of the proceedings of the late National
"^ Prison Congress of Baltimore.
Respectfully submitted.
HAMILTON FISH.
The President.
<^
Washington, February 12, 1873.
^ Sir : I have the honor to submit to you my report as Commissioner
"^ of the United States to the International Penitentiary Congress of Lon-
2^ don, together with an appendix, containing summary of proceedings of
the late National Prison Congress of Baltimore.
With gTcat respect, I have the honor to be, your most obedient servant,
E. C. WINES,
Commissioner, dc.
His Excellency U. S. Grant,
President of the United States.
H. Ex. 185 *
1
jj"^. ■.'1 .■ ^ .y'v. ■- ''■■ .'
CONTENTS.
Page.
Genekal ixtkoduction 1
PAET FIRST : STATE OF PKISONS.
Chaptek I : PiiisoN systems 7
§ 1. Austria , 8
2. Belgium 7
.3. Denmark 10
4. France - 11
5. German Empire 14
(1.) Baden 14
(2.) Bavaria 15
(3.) Prussia 15
(4.) Saxony IB
(5.) Wiirtemberg 16
6. Italy , 17
7. Mexico , 18
8. Netherlands - 19
9. Norway 19
10. Rassia"^ ; 20
11. Switzerland 21
12. Sweden 22
13. United States .■ 23
14. England 25
1.5. Ireland 26
Chaptek II : PrasoN administration 27
^ 1. Austria 27
2. Belgium 28
3. Denmark , ■. 28
4. France 28
5. German Empire 29
(1.) Baden 29
(2.) Bavaria 29
(3.) Prussia 30
(4.) Saxony 30
(5.) Wiirtemberg 30
6. Italy 31
7. Mexico 31
8. Netherlands 31
9. Norway 32
10. Russia 32
11. Sweden 33
12. Switzerland 33
13. United States .- 34
14. England and Ireland 34
Chapter III : Prison discipline 35
§ 1. Austria , 35
2. Belgium 36
3. Denmark 36
4. France 36
5. German States 37
(1.) Baden 38
(2.) Bavaria , 38
(3.) Prussia 38
(4.) Saxony 39
(5.) Wiirtemberg 39
6. Italy 40
7. Mexico 41
8. Netherlands , 42
9. Norway 42
10. Russia 43
11. Sweden 43
12. Switzerland 44
13. United States 45
14. England 46
15. Ireland 47
IV CONTENTS.
• Page,
HAPTER IV : Moral axd religious agencies 48
5 1. Austria 48
" 2. Belgium 48
3. Denmark 49
4. France 49
5. German States 50
(1.) Baden 50
(2.) Bavaria 50
(3.) Prussia 51
(4.) Saxony 51
(5.) Wiirtemberg 52
G. Italy 52
7. Mexico 52
8. Netherlands 52
9. Norway 53
10. Russia 53
11. Sweden 54
12. Switzerland 55
13. United States 56
14. England 57
15. Ireland 57
Chapter V : Scholastic education 57
6 1. Austria 57
2. Belgium , 58
3. Denmark 58
4. France 58
5. German States 60
(1.) Baden 60
(2.) Bavaria 60
(3.) Prussia 60
(4.) Saxony 61
(5.) Wiirtemberg 61
6. Italy 61
7. Mexico : 62
8. Netherlands 62
9. Norway 62
iO. Russia 62
11. Sweden 62
12. Switzerland 63
13. United States 64
14. England 66
, 15. Ireland 67-
CitAiTER VI : Prison labor 67
^ 1. Austria 67
2. Dennuuk 68
3. Belgium 68
4. France 69
5. German States 69
(1 ) Badon 69
(2. ) Bavaria 70
(3.) I'nisHia 70
(4. ) Haxony 70
(.5.) Wiirt(!nibcrg 71
6. Italy 71
7. Mexico 71
H. N(!thiTlarids 71
9. Norway 71
10. ItiiHMJa 72
11. Sweden 72
12. Kwitzdrland 73
13. United States 74
14. Eiightnd 75
ir.. Inland 76
(-'iiAiTKU VII: Sanitary condition ok prisons 76
^ 1. AoHtria 76
2. l'<!lgiiiiti 76
3. I )r'iiinark 78
I. Fraiicf! 78
CONTENTS. V
Page.
Chapter VII : Sanitary condition of prisons — Continued.
5. German States 79
(1.) Baden ' 79
(2.) Bavaria 80
(3.) Prussia 80
(4.) Saxony 81
(5.) WUrtemberg 81
6. Italy 82
7. Mexico 82
8. Netherlands - 82
9. Norway 83
10. Russia 83
11. Sweden 84
12. Switzerland 84
13. United States 84
14. England .--. 85
15. Ireland 85
ChapterVIII: Reformatory results 85
§ 1. Austria i 85
2. Belgium 85
?>. Denmark 86
4. France 86
5. German States 86
(1.) Baden 86
(2.) Bavaria 86
(3.) Prussia 86
(4.) Saxony - 86
(5.) Wiirtemberg ! 86
6. Italy 87
7. Mexico 87
8. Netherlands 87
9. Norway 87
10. Russia 87
11. Sweden 87
12. Switzerland 88
13. United States 88
14. England* and Ireland 89
Chapter IX: Prison officers, their qu^axifications and training 89
§ 1. Austria i 89
2. Belgium 89
3. Denmark 89
4. France 89
5. German States 90
(1.) Baden 90
(2.) Bavaria , 90
(3.) Prussia 91
(4.) Saxony 91
(5.) Wiirtemberg 91
6. Italy 91
7. Mexico 91
8. Netherlands 91
9. Norway 92
10. Russia 92
11. Sweden 92
12. Switzerland 93
13. United States 93
14. England and Ireland 93
Chapter X : Sentences 94
§ 1. Austria 94
2. Belgium 94
3. Denmark ^ , 94
4. France 94
5. German States 94
(1.) Baden 94
(2. ) Bavaria 94
( 3. ) Prussia 94
(4.) Saxony 95
6. Italy 95
7. Mexico 95
8. Netherlands 95
VI CONTENTS.
Page.
Chapter X : Sentences — Coutinuecl.
9. Norway 95
10. Russia , 95
11. Sweden 95
12. Switzerland 95
13. United States 96
14. England and Ireland 96
Chapter XI : Imprisonment for debt 96
1^ 1. Austria 96
" 2. Belgium , 96
8. Denmark 96
4. France 96
5. German States 97
(1.) Baden 97
(2. ) Bavaria 97
(3J Prussia 97
(4.) Saxony 97
(5. ) Wiirtemberg 97
G. Italy 97
7. Mexico . : 97
8. Netherlands 97
9. Norway » 97
10. Russia 97
11. Sweden 98
12. Switzerland 98
13. United States 98
14. England and Ireland 98
CnAPTi^R XIJ : Causes op crime 98
(\ 1. Austria 98
2. Belgium 98
3. Denmark 98
4. France 98
5. German States 99
(1.) Baden 99
(2.) Bavaria 99
6. Italy 99
7. Mexico 99
H. Netherlands 100
9. Norway 100
10. Russia". 100
11. Sweden 100
12. Switzerland 100
13. United States 100
14. Engl.'ind and Ireland 100
Ciiai'Ter XIII : Liijerateo imusoners 101
$ 1. Austria 101
2. Belgium :.., 101
3. Denmark 101
4. France 102
.5. German States 102
(1.) Baden 102
(2.) Bavaria 102
('.',.) I'rnssia H'3
(4.) Saxony 103
(5.) Wiirtemberg 103
0. Italy 103
7. Mexico • 103
H. Netherlands 103
9. Norway 104
10. KriHsia 104
11. Sweden 104
, ' 12. Switzerland ^ 104
13. United States 104
11. F'lngland 105
1.'.. Ireland 105
CiiArri-.K XIV: Sixjuehtions uklatino to J{ef<»i{mh 105
^ 1. AuHtria 105
2. Belgium 10.5
3. France lOii
CONTENTS VII
Page.
CiiArTER XIV : Suggestions relating to reforms— Continued.
4. German States 106
(1.) Baden lOR
(2.) Bavaria 106
(3.) Prussia 106
.^). Norway 106
6. Netherlands 106
7. Eussia 107
8. Switzerland ll^I
9. United States 113
Chapter XV: Juvenile reformatories 114
§ 1. Denmark 114
2. Saxony 114
3. France 114
4. Italy 115
5. Switzerland 115
6. United States 115
7. England 116
Historical sketch of reformatory system 116
Results of the system 118
Distinction between reformatory and industrial schools 119
Fnndamental principles of reformatory system 119
1. The union of private agency with government support and
supervision 119
2. The use of moral in preference to physical dicipline 120
3. Its thoroughly religious tone and character 121
4. Careful industrial training ^ 121
5. Supervision and occasional assistance after liberation 121
6. The responsibility of parents to contribute toward the support
of their children committed to reformatories 121
Chapter XVI : State of prisons in British possessions 122
^1. India 122
" 2. Ceylon 124
3. Jamiaca 125
4, Victoria 126
PART SECOND : WOP.K OF THE CONGRESS.
Introductory 128
Chapter XVII : The prisoner after arrest and before conviction 130
What treatment should he receive? 130
Remarks of Count de Foresta 130
Mr. Collins 131
Mr. Stevens 131
Mr.Pownell 131
Chapter XVIII : The prisoner during his incarceration 131
^ 1. Proper maximum of prisoners for any single prison. 131
Remarks of Mr. Ekert 131
Sir John Bowring 132
Mr. Vaucher Cr6mieux 132
Mr. Stevens 132
Dr. Mowatt 132
Mr. Peterson, (Norway) 132
Hon. H. H. Leavitt./. 132
Mrs. Janney 133
Colonel Colville 133
Dr. Frey 133
General Pilsbury 133
Professor Foynitsky 133
Mr. F. Hill 133
Baron A'on Holtzendorff" 133
ij 2. Classification of prisoners 133
Remarks of M. d'Alinge 133
Mr. Stevens 134
Dr. Mowatt 134
Mr. Tallack 134
Dr. Marquardsen 134
Mr. Sargent Cox , 134
Dr. Bittinger 134
Colonel Ratcliff 135
Baron von Holtzendorff 135
VIII CONTENTS.
Page.
CliAPTEK XVIII : The rRisoxER during his incarceration — Continued.
§ 3. How far should prison management be regulated by legislation ? 135
Kemarks of Mr. Stevens 135
Baron Macay 135
Mr. F.Hill 135
Dr. Mowatt 135
Baron von Holtzendorff 135
Mr. Beltrani Scalia 136
Mr. Hastings 13G
Mr. Berden 136
$|4. Whether ^vbipping should be used as a disciplinary punishment ... 136
' Remarks of Mr. Stevens 136
Major DuCane 136
Dr. Mowatt.... 137
Mr. Shepherd 137
Dr. Marquardsen 137
Dr. Frey 137
Dr. Guillaume 137
Major Fulford 137
Mr'. Wills 137
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe 137
Mr. F.Hill 137
Mr. Hastings 137
Sir Walter Crofton 138
General Pilsbury . 138
Dr. Marquardsen 138
§ 5. Kinds and limits of instruction suited to the reformatory treatment of
prisoners 138
Remarks of Mr. Stevens 138
Mr. Tallack 139
Mr. Merry 139
Mr. McFarlane 139
Dr. Varrentrapp 139
Miss Mary Carpenter 139
^ 6. Whether it is expedient in certain cases to employ an imprisonment
consisting in mere privation of liberty without obligation to work.. . 139
Remarks of Count de Foresta 139
Professor Wladrinoif 139
Mr. Chandler 140
Dr. Mowatt 140
Dr. Marquardsen 140
$ 7. Whether sentences for life are expedient 140
Remarks of Baron von Holtzendortf 140
Dr. Wines 140
Dr. Mowatt 140
Hon. Daniel Haines 140
Mr. Stevens 140
Mr. Vaucher Cr6micux 140
Mr. Hastings 140
§ 8. Wh<!tlier jirisoiK rson reconviction should be subjected to a more severe
disci jiliiiary tn-iitnient 141
Remarks of Mr S. I'dersen, (Bavaria) 141
Mr. rioos van Amstul 141
Dr. Fr.v 141
M. Robin 141
.Mr. St<!vcns 141
(■(Mint Sollolmb 141
l>r. (Jiiillauiiic ■ 141
Connt d(! Foresta 141
Dr. BiUiiigcr 142
Mrs. .Julia Ward Howe 142
•',;*. Wliat hhould lie tin' niaxiininii of imprisonmonl, cellulnr or otherwise,
for t«TMiH Irss than lid; ? 112
Remarks of 1 )r. .Maninanlseii H2
Dr. Frey 142
Mr. Htcvcns 142
Mr. Monciire 142
I'.arnii Mmkav 142
Sir VViilt.T Crofton 142
CONTENTS. IX
Page.
Chapter XVIII: The pklsoner during his incarceration— Contmued.
^ 10. Whether or not imprisonment should be uniform in nature, and differ
only in length 142
Remarks of Count Sollohub 142
Dr. Mowatt 14«
Count de Foresta 143
^ 11. Prison labor — penal and industrial 143
Remarks of Mr. F. Hill 143
Major Fulford 144
General Pilsbury 145
Dr. Wiues 145
Mr. Hibbert, M. P 145
Sir John Bo wring , 145
Mr. Ploos von Amstel 145
Colonel Colville 145
Mr. Stevens 145
Dr. Mowatt 145
Dr. Frey 146
Chapter XIX: The prisoner after his liberation 146
§ 1. Best mode of aiding discharged prisoners 146
Remarks of Mr. Murray Browne 146
Mr. Powell 147
M. d'Alinge 147
Mr. Rankin 147
Baron Mackay 148
Mrs. Meredith 148
Rev.M.Robin 148
Mr. M. Browne 148
A member from France 148
Dr. Guillaume 148
Mr. Biemner 149
$ 2. Best means of securing the rehabilitation of prisoners 149
Remarks of !Mr. Stevens 149
Mr. Hastings , 149
Sir Walter Crofton : 149
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe 149
Baron Mackay 149
Mr.Baker 149
Dr. Wines „ 149
Mr. Chandler 150
Sir John Packington 150
§ 3. Best mode of giving remission of sentences and regulating conditional
discharges « 150
Remarks of Sir W. Crofton 150
Mr. Tallack 150
Mr. Stevens 150
Mr. Chandler 151
Mr. F. Hill 151
Major Du Cane 151
Mr. Nevin '. 151
/ Dr. Frey 151
Mr. Hastings 151
$ 4. Supervision of discharged convicts 152
Remarks of Mr. Baker 152
Mr. F. Hill 152
Mr. Browne 152
M. Stevens 152
Chapter XX : Miscellaneous joints 152
$ 1. Whether prison officers should have special training for their work 152
Remarks of Dr. Guillaume 152
Major Du Cane , 153
Baron Mackay 153
Sir Harry Vorney, M. P , 153
Mr. Rathbone 153
Major Fulford 153
Dr. Mouat 153
Dr. Wines 154
^ 2. Whether transportation is expedient in punishment of crime 154
Rejmarks of Count de Foresta 154
X CONTENTS.
Page
Chapter XX: Miscf.i.i^\neous points— Continued.
M.Pols 154
• Count Sollohub 154
Mr. Hastings 154
Count de Foresta 154
Baron Von Holtzeudortf 155
^ 3. Whether short imprisonment and the non-payment of fines may be
replaced hy compulsory labor without privation of liberty 155
Remarks of Count de Fox'esta 15.5
Mr.Tallack , 155
Rev. Mr. Collins 155
Mr. Stevens 155
Sir John Bowring 155
Baron Mackay 155
Mr. Bremuer 156
Baron von Holtzendorft' 156
•^ 4. The proper limits of the power of boards of prison-managers, as regards
the administration of prisons 1.56
Remarks of M. Loysou 156
M. Yaucher-Cr6mieux 1.56
Colonel Ratclitf 1.56
^> 5. Whether the government of j)risons should be placed in the hands of
a supreme central authority 156
Remarks of Mr. Hastings'. 156
M. Ploos van Anistcl 156
M. Stevens 156
Dr. Guillaume 157
Messrs. Carter and Baker 157
«> ("). International prison statistics 157
Remarks of Mr. Beltrani-Scalia . . ^ 1-57
Count Sollohub 1.57
Dr. Frey 1.57
Dr. Guillaume 1.57
Trofessor Lione Leir 157
^ 7. The best means of repressing crime-capitalists 157
Remarks of Mr. Edwin Hill 157
Mr. Serjeant Cox 158
Mr. Chandler 1.58
Colonel Ratcliff 1.58
Mr. Aspimill 159
$8. Whether whipi)iiig is expedient in punishmcut of crime 159
Remarks of M. Pols 159
, Mr. Aspinall 159
Colonel Ratolitt' 159
Dr. Maniuardsen 159
v> 9. lOx trad it ion trcatii'S 100
lieiiiai ks of Dr. Frey 100
MO. Woman's work in prisons 160
liemarivs of Mrs. Ciiaae 100
M iss 'Mary Carpenter 160
Miss Emily Faithful ir»l
Mrs. .Julia Ward Howe 161
^Irs. Ltswis 161
Mr. Jiremucr 162
liev. Mr. Crombleholuie 16">
l.afly Bowring h'>2
CiiAi'ii.K XXI: l'i:i;vK,N-nvK anu kkkok.matoky wokk 1.52
liiiiiaiki lit' Mr. Uracr 162
MIhh Cui'pi-nlitr 16U
Mr. Foot.-, 164
.M. Vanclii r-(,'n'micux 164
Mr. Ilcndiicksou 164
.Mr. Howe 1 64
.M. Hourniit 164
.Mr. MiirHliall 164
•Sir "i". Fowell Baxtoii 104
Mr. linker 101
Haroii von I loltzendorH' 105
Dr. (inillaunuT 16.5
Mr. Wills 155
CONTENTS. XI
Page.
Chapter XXI : Preventivk and REroRMATOiiY work — Continued.
Eev. Mr. Crombleholnie 165
Remarks of Mr. Aspinall '. 16.^
Sir W. Crofton 16."
Dr. Marquardseu 16".
Mr. Ford 165
Charter XXII : Penitentiary systems 166
^ 1. The Irish convict system, as explained by Sir W. Crofton 16G •
2. The Irish borough and county prison system, as explained by Mr. Bourke
and others 167
3. The English convict system, as explained by Major I)u Cane.., 167
4. The English borough and county jirison system, as explained by Cap-
tain Armytage and others 16b
5. The Scotch prison system, as explained by Mr. Monclare 168
6. The Belgian prison system, as explained by Mr. Stevens 169
7. The Russian prison system, as explained by Count SoHohub 16^
8. The French prison system, as explained by M. Berenger 169
9. The Swiss prison system, as explained by Dr. Guillaume 170
10. The Italian prison system, as explained by Count de Foresta 170
11. The German prison system, as explained bj- Heir Ekert, Dr. Varrentrapp,
and Baron von Holizendoiff 170
12. The Netherland's prison system, as explained by M. Ploos van AmsteL. 171
13. The Swedish prison system, as explained by M. Almquist 171
1 4. The Austrian prison system, as explained by Dr. Frey 171
15. The prison system of India, as explained by Dr. Mouat 171
'16. The prison system of the United States, as explained by Mr. Chandler
and others 171
Chapter XXIII : Concluding session of Congress 172
§ 1. Presentation by -Dr. Wines of the Works of Edward Livingston on
Criminal Jurisprudence, in English and French 172
Letters from M. Vergd, member of the institute, and Archbishop Man-
ning on the subject of Livingston's Works 172
2. Presentation by Dr. Wines of M. Lucas's observations 17^-5
R«?sum^ of Mr. Lucas's views 173
3. Propo.sit ions submitted by American delegation , 174
4. Propositions embodied in tinal report of the executive committee, and
adopted by the congress as expressing its conception of the funda-
mental principles of prison discipline 177
Remarks of Mr. Hastings on moving the adoption of the report 178
• Gov. Haines in seconding same 179
Miss Carpenter on report 179 '
Siv John Packington on putting motion to adopt report 179
5. Creation of permanent international prison commission 179
6. Vote of thanks to Mrs. Hastings and Pears, with remarks by Dr. Wines,
Archbishop Manning, and Sir John Packington ISO
7. Vote of thanks to Dr. Mouat, w ith remarks by Mr. Aspinall and Baron
Mackay 180
8. Vote of thanks to Dr. Wines, with remarks by Drs. Guillaume, Mar-
quardsen, and Sir John PacKiugton 180
Response by Dr. Wines ^ 181
9. Vote of thanks to Sir John Packington, "with remarks by Messrs. Has-
tings and Mouat 181
10. Response by Sir John Packington 181
PART THIRD : PAPERS SUBMITTED TO THE CONGRESS.
Introductory l«*ir
Chapter XXIII : *Prisoners and their reformation, by Z. R. Brockway.. 162
Chapter XXIV : Cumulative sentences, by Liverpool magistrates 184 /
Chapter XXV : Treatment of prisoners, by Sir W. Crofton.. 185 /
Chapter XXVI : Preventive police organization, by Edwin Chadwick. .. 187 ~ /
Chapter XXVII : Crimes of passion and crimes of reflection, by Dr.
Bittinger 189
Chapter XXVIII : Life and services of Howard, by Dr. Bellows 190
Chapter XXIX : Historical sketch of the prison of Ghent, by M. Vis-
SCHERS 194
Conception of this prison due to Viscount Vilain XIV - 194
State of society in Belgium near the middle of eighteenth century 195
* !Number of last chapter repeatedlnadvertently.
XII CONTENTS.
Page.
Chapter XXIX : Historical sketch, etc.— Continued.
Principal events in the life of Viscount Vilain 195
Analysis of two memoirs, by Vilain, proposing the construction of the
prison of Ghent 19.5
Plan and interior division of the prison 196
' Administration, discipline, and industries 197
Howard visits and praises this prison » 199
Kecapitulation of Vilain's principles of prison disciiiliue 200
Progress of prison discipline during the last century 200
Mr. Visschers prefers the Crofton system 201
Note on a paper communicated by Dr. Despine, of France, on the criminal
himself, being a study and development of his moral anomalies 201
PART FOURTH: PERSONAL INSPECTIONS OF EUROPEAN PRISONS AND
REFORMATORIES.
INTRODUCTORY 201
Letter of instructions by Governor Seymour 201
Chapter XXX: Prisons and reformatories op Ireland 202
0 1. Convict prisons of Ireland 202
2. Juvenile reformatories of Ireland 208
Chapter XXXI : Prisons and reformatories op England 209
? 1. English prisons 209
2. Aid to discharged prisoners - 213
A. Mrs. Meredith's wash-house in aid of discharged female prisoners 213
4. Carlisle memorial refuge for women 214
5. English reformatories 216
Chapter XXXII: Prisons and rejormatories of Switzerland 216
^ 1. The prisons of Switzerland 216
Penitentiaries at Geneva and Berne 216
Penitentiary at Zurich - 216
Penitentiary at Lenzbourg 217
Penitentiary at Neufchatel 217
2. Reformatories of Switzerland 228
Chapter XXXIII: Prisons of Germany •.. 228
(' 1 . German convict prisons 228
(a) Convict prison at Berlin 228
(b) Convict prison at Bruchsal 229
{(•) Convict prison at Munich 230
2. Detention prison at Municli « 231
:?. Patronage of discharged prisoners at Bavaria 232
System of patronage admirably organized ; its orgauization/lcscribed in
'detail 232
Minutes of a njeeting of the patronage society of Munich, August 12,
1873 234
Chapter XXXIV: Prisons in Italy 235
^ 1. The prison delhs Marate, at Florence 235
2. The ]iris<)iis of Rome 235
(a) 'I'he i)rison ch-Ue Terino 235
(h) Tlie juison of San Micliele 235
This prison liistoric 235
Founded in 1704, byl'ope Cleniont XI 2.36
San Micheie the germ of tlio Auburn system 236
3. Tin- fiitnro of penitentiary rcibrni in Italy 236
CHAITEK X.\X\ : I'KISO.NS and RErORMATOItlES OP BELGIUM 237
(» 1. Brjgian prisons 237
(a) l'( III tent iary of Lou vain 237
(h) (Convict prison of (ilient 238
(c) Detention prison and house of correction at Ghent 238
2. .jnveniln reforniatorirs of Belginni 2.38
' liAriKR XXXV'I: I'imso.ns and itKioitMAToitiKS IN Netiikulands 240
^1. Military jirison at J/cydcn 240
2. Cellular prison of AniMtcrdani 241
'■'. Detention jirinon at tlie Hague - 242
t. Aid tf> liberated prisoners 242
.5. Netherlands Mettruy 242
Chaptkr XXXVII: I'kihonw aki> kki-ohmatouiks ln France 245
$ 1. Two (list in<t jirison adniinistr.'itions 245
2. Kxi)l;uiatifin of the, tcniiH indiljii'n, jnrroiUH, accuses 246
3. Grand d«]iot of the ijrefcctnre of ] ml ice 246
CONTENTS. XIII
Page.
CiiAPTEK XXXVII : Prisons and beffrmatories in France— Continued.
4. Mazas - 247
5. The Concierj^erie 249
G. The Grand Roquette 249
7. Sainte-Pdlagie , 250
8. Saint-Lazaie 251
9. LaSaut6 253
10. La Petite Roquette 255
11. The female central prison of Clermont , 255
12. Male central prison of Melun 257
13. Departmental prisons at St. Omer 258
14. A quasi prison 259
15. General remarks on French prisons 259
(a) Material organization excellent — moral, lanqiiid 259
(&) Percentage of relapses increase rather than diminish 259
(c) Wards of preservation and amendment , 260
(d) Dietaries too low 260
16. Agricultural and penitentiary colony of Mettray 260
Founded by M. Demetz thirty-five years ago 261
General statistics 261
Conducted on the family system 261
Advantages of this system 262
Agriculture the chief industry, but not to the exclusion of mechan-
ical labor 262
System of training — the heart, the body, the intellect 263
Earnest care given to the vrards of Mettray after their discharge 264
Mettray resembles a great and beautiful vrork of nature 264
Extraordinary results 265
The training school of Mettray, {^cole preparatoire) 265
The maison paternelle, (house of ijaternal correction) 266
Review of the colons 268
17. Patronage of discharged prisoners in France 268
Has not taken root widely 268
Well organized and successful as far as it goes 269
PART FIFTH: LESSONS, SUGGESTIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS.
Ch^vpter XXXVIII : Conclusion 270
§ 1. Principle above systems 270
2. Evil eifects of repeated short sentences 271
3. The character of sentences needs modification 272
4. The prison system of a country should be a unit 274
5. Stability of administration an essential condition of a good prison
system 275
6. Series of institutions needed in a good system • 277
(a) Preventive institutions 277
(6) Juvenile reformatories 278
(c) The county jail , 279
(d) The house of correction 280
(c) The state- prison 281
Connected with these last two classes of prisons should be inter-
mediate or testing establishments 282
Mr. Barwick Baker's proposition on this subject 283
7. Crime-capitalists should be exterminated 285
8. Society owes indemnity to persons wrongfully imprisoned and declared
innocent by the courts 286
9. Effective means should be devised to identify prisoners previously con-
victed 288
10. Greater attention should be given to penitentiary statistics 289
11. A reformatory prison discipline must work with nature, not against it.. 292
12. A reformatory discipline must have a punishing stage and a training
stage 295
13. A reformatory discipline must impart the power and the will to live
honestly 296
14. Religion and education are essential forces in the work of reforming
criminals 296
15. To success in this work it is essential that those wlio engage in it
should both desire and intend its accomplishment 297
16. A sincere belief that it can be done is equally necessary 297
17. Greater use must be made of moral forces, less of physical 297
XIV CONTENTS.
Page
Chapter XXXVIII : Conclusion— Continued.
18. ludividualization an essential principle in a reformatory discipline.. . 300
19. Men trained to the work are needed 301
20. All possible encouragement and aid must be given to liberated prisoners
who desire to live honestly 302
'21. The National Government should have prisons and a prison system of
its own 303
TRANSACTIONS OF THE NATIONAL REFORM CONGRESS OF BALTIMORE.
I. First session.
Opening address of Governor Seymour 307
Address of welcome, by Mr. Jones 313
Address of Mr. Kerr 314
Remarks of Mr. Hageman 317
Appointment of standing committees 316
Organization of the congress 318
Roll of members 318
II. Annual reports of secretary and standing committees of the National Prison
Association .' 321
1. Report of the secretary ..., 321
2. Report of the executive committee 321
3. Report of the committee on prison discipline 331
4. Report of the committee on discharged convicts 336
D. Papers communicated 338
1. The criminal; by Dr. Despine, France 338
2. On the treatment of life-sentenced prisoners; by Miss Mary Carpenter,
England 348
3. Remarks on sundry points considered in theCongress of London ; by
theRt. Hon. Sir W. Crofton, England 354
4. School for training officers at Mettray ; by M. Demetz, France 358
5. Susceptibility of criminals to reformatory agencies; by Henry James
Anderson, New York 359
6. Duty of society to persons arrested ; by William J. Mullen, Pennsyl-
/ vania 362
7. Intemperance and crime ; by Aaron M. Powell, New York 364
8. Prison reform in Pennsylvania ; by George L. Harrison, jiresident of
the board of public charities 367
9. Hope the great reform ; by Hon. B. F. Butler, M. C 369
10. The final cause of criminal legislation as effecting modes of punishment 370
11. Thoughts on prison treatment ; by A. H. Love, Philadelphia 374
12. A noble testimony; by Rev. C. C. Foote, ex-chaplaiu of the Detroit
House of Correction 374
lY. Reports on the i)enal, reformatory, and preventive institutions of States and
Territories 375
1. Californi;i — by Rev. James Woodworth 375
2. Connecticut — l)y Rev. .T. K. Fessendeu 379
3. Illinois— by Rev. Fred. 1 1. Wines 384
4. Indiana — by C. F. Colllin 388
.'). Iowa — by M. 1 leisey 391
C). Kansas — by II. Hoi»kins 391
7. Maine- by Rev. J. K. Mason 393
8. Maryiand-Iiy G. S. Grildth 396
9. MasMacluisetts — l)y F. 15. Sanborn 400
10. Micliigan— by Hoii. C. I. Walker 411
11. MinncHota— iiy Prof. W. T. Piiclps 417
12. Mis-iissippi — by (Jcnera! 15. !5. lOggleston 422
i:'.. MiHHouri— by Mr. Miiltjr and (Jcniiral Miner 424
M. Ni-biiiHka — by Rev. J. W. Snowden 425
15. N< w llatnimhire — by Rev. Dr. (Jlark 426
16. New .Jersey — by Jolin F. Hageman, eH(| 428
17. New York— l)yK. Harris, M. D 433
IH. North ('an)lina 435
19. Oregon— by Rev. (i. Williain Walker 439
20. Riiode Island- i)y Rev. A. Woodbury 440
21. Sou til Carolina— by (Jeneral Stolbrniid 447
22. Tenn<!MHee— by Dr.' Wriglit 449
23. Texas— by Rev. .Mr. Rogers 449
24. Vermont— by licv. V. I'.utler 451
25. WiHcoiiHin — l)y Hon. Samuel Hastings 4.55
26. Utah— by Mr. Rockwood 458
CONTENTS. XV
Page.
V. Proceecliugs aud discnssious - 460
Discussion on annual io})orts of standing committees on iirison discipline
and discharged convicts 460
Discussion on indefinite sentences .-.---: ^^'^
Discussion on reports from Connecticut and California 46:3
Invitations from institutions in Maryland 464
Address by Miss Linda Gilbert 465
Discussion on reports from Michigan and New Jersey, and a paper by Dr.
Despine on "The criminal" 46."
Resolutions relating to the works of Edward Livingston, published in
America and France ^ 466
Discussion on annual report of executive committee, and a paper on "Un-
tried prisoners," by Mr. Mullen 467
Sir Walter Crofton's paper, with remarks on same 46"J
Discussion on Mr. Powell's paper on intemperance and crime 469
Discussion on several papers relating to reformatory work 470
Invitation to hold next congress at Saint Louis — accepted with thanks 474
Miss Carpenter's paper on life-sentenced prisoners, with remarks on same.. 474
Finance committee's report 474
Discussion on memorial to congress 475
Discussion on system of leasing prisoners 476
Discussion on untried and discharged prisoners 476
Resolution and discussion on reformatories 479
Mr. Yaux's remarks on the Pennsylvania system 480
Vote of thanks to Maryland Prisoners' Aid Association and others 481
Valedictory addresses - 481
Special thanks voted to Governor Seymour and Dr. Wines 482
Speech of Mr. Walker in moving this vote .-• 482
Responses from Messrs. Wiiies and Seymour 483
VI. Resolutions adopted by the congress - 48o
VII. The National Prison Association of the United States of America 485
1. Officers of the association for 1873 485
2. Board of directors , 485
'■i. Standing committees - 486
4. Corresponding members 486
5. Life-directors ' 487
6. Life-members 487
7. Treasurer's report , 488
8. Contributions from May, 1871, to May, 1873 488
9. Act of incorporation ^ 490
10. Constitution 491
11. Bv-laws 49;i
HEFORT
GENERAL INTEODUCTIOK
The Congress of London lias passed into history. It is a fixed fact,
irrevocable and unchangeable. It only reaiaius t6 tell its story and
gather its frnits. The first is simple, and may be quickly done ; the last
will be manifold, and the harvest, it may "be hoped, will be gathering for
years, if not for generations, to come.
In a paper read by M. Charles Lucas before the French Academy
prior to the meeting of the congress, it was well remarked by that emi-
nent and venerable man :
InternationaT congresses have been too often repeated in onr day to be looked upon
as facts purelj' accidental. There is a reason fen- their existence. They are the neces-
sary consequence of the two laws of the sociability and perfectibility of man, which,
at the present advanced stage of our civilization, demand the international exchange
of ideas to promote the moral progress of humanity, as they do that of material pro-
ducts to advance the public wealth. Such congresses serve to show the condition of
different nations as regards their intellectual (levelopment, in the same manner as
industrial exhibitions show the comparative results of their economic development.
Hitherto there have been convened congresses of governments and congresses of citi-
zens. The first have already done good service, and it is desirable to iiicrease their im-
portance and their frequency in international and diplomatic relations. The second
play the part of generous satellites of civilization, wlwich, that they may give light and
direction to its progress, rush to the front, sometimes rather precipitately and not in
the most perfect order, but always affording a useful stimulus to human development.
What stamps upon the Congress of London a character of complete originality is that
it is enritled, and, in effect, is to be, a xemi-official conference, combining the initiative
of governments and of individuals. The circumstance most remarkable about it is
that this semi-official character has been given to the congress by a government hereto-
fore least disposed to interfere, in the slightest degree, with the'free initiative of indi-
viduals and associations, and by a people least inclined to tolerate such interference.
This analysis of the elements composing the Congress of Loudon is
perfectly just. The congress was opened on the evening of the 3d of
July, in the great hall of the Middle Temple, with an address by the
right honorable the Earl of Carnarvon, a nobleman profoundly versed
in penitentiary science and thoroughly active in the work of peniten-
tiary reform. The address was able, lerse, and practical — one of those
model productions which give, with a Doric simplicity, " the essences
of things." Every sentence went straight to the mark ; every paragraph
was marked by good sense; and the whole discourse, drawn from "the
well of English undefiled," held the vast assemblage spellbound to the
end.
At the conclusion of the address Lord Harrowby offered a resolution
of welcome to the foreign delegates, which was seconded by Sir Charles
Adderly; and both gentlemen gave, expression, in well-conceived
thoughts and happy phrase, to the sentiment of hospitality with which
England received the members of the congress coming from other coun-
tries.
Baron Von Holtzendorff, on behalf of the continental delegates, and
the Hon. Joseph K. Chandler, on behalf of the delegates from Amer-
ica, replied to the welcome in terms no less graceful and eloquent than
those in which it had been conveyed.
H. Ex. 185 1
2 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
The nnclersig'ned would here respectfully submit to the President his
appreciation of the character, work, and probable results of the Con-
gress of London.
1. Twenty distinct nationalities were represented in the congress by
delegates bearing commissions from their respective governments: in
some cases one representative only being so commissioned, in others
several. In addition to the national representatives from the United
States and the German Empire, fifteen States of the former and five of
the latter were also officially represented ; some of them, as in the case
of nationalities, by a single delegate, others by a plurality. The same
was true of several of the larger of the colonial possessions of Eng-
land ; as, for example, India and Australia. So that altogether the
numljer of official members with commissions from governments, could
not have been less than sixty, and might have reached, and probably
did, to seventy. This is a great fact, quite unprecedented in the annals
of penitentiary reform.
2. Besides official members, numerous delegates were present with
commissions from national committees, prison societies, managing
boards of i:)enitentiary and reformatory establishments, societies of
jurists, criminal-law departments of universities, and last, though not
least, the Institute of Fraiice, the most illustrious body of sovans iu the
world. Between official and non-official members, that is, delegates
commissioned by governments and delegates commissioned by such or-
ganizations as those named in the preceding sentence, the congress
must have numbered not much, if any, less than four hundred mem-
bers.
3. If the cqngress was conspicuous by the number of its members and
of the governments and organizations represented, it was no less con-
spicuous by their ability and thorough mastery of the questions which
engaged its study. It was a reunion of specialists — men and women
largely devoted to prison-work, whether in the investigation of the
])rinci])les of ])enitentiarv science or in their practical ap])lication —
and embodying, representatively, the knowledge, experience, and wis-
dom of the Avorld on the subjects to which its labors were dedicated.
4. It is much that the thinlcers and workers in this great cause have
met in council ; that they have looked into eacli othei's faces ; that they
have gras[)ed hands; .and that they have felt their hearts beating, as it
w«^re, one against the other. Symi)athies have thus been awakened
and friends!ii[)s ibrmed, ii-om which precious fruits will be gathered.
All will go back to tlieir respecive fields, to work with greater earnest-
ness and liiglier hope from the strength and courage received from su(;h
Communion. Valuable correspondence and the interchange of nuitually
instructive docuinents cannot fail to be among the useful results of the
acqiniintances foi-med at this great international gathering. Another
benefit will be a far more extensive international visitatiou of ])risons;
and from tliis will conu', on the one side, a largi^ intbix into the diiferent
countries of lu'w and in many cases fiuitful ideas, and, on the other, a
great diminution, if not a comj)h'te obliteration, of international preju-
(licAiH.
5. An amount of information on the jjcnitejitiary aiul reformatory
systems of dilTeicnt countries and their residls, never, I think, hereto-
fore collected, juid ceitainly never before ])resented in one view, is
among the most ])recions results of this congress. The greater i)art of
the governments represented handed in ('arefully-])repared official re-
ports in response to a series of (piestions submitted to them by the un-
dersigned, and the information tlius offered, wide and valuable as it is,
INTRODUCTORY CHARACTER AND BENEFITS. 6
was most usefully supplemented by facts communicated and statements
made by delegates on the floor of the congress. It would be dilticult to
exaggerate the value of such a mass of information, coming, as it does,
from the most authentic sources, and, by consequence, (,'lotlied with an
authority with which it could not have been otherwise invested.
6. The vast fund of precious information thus accumulated will be
diffused, through the agency of the congress, to the utmost limits of
civilization. It is to be presumed that the official delegates will all
make reports to the governments by which they were commissioned,
all of which reports will, no doubt, be published among the archives
of the governments to which they are made, and will thus not onl^-
be circulated among the people of all civilized countries, but will come
under the special notice of the makers and executors of the laws of
those countries.
But this is not all. The numerous non-official delegates will, beyond
a doubt, in a thousand different forms and through as nmny several
channels, make report of the doings of the congress to their respective
constituencies ; and the press of all nations — so keen in its scent of news,
so prompt to catch and crystallize all forms of thought, so potent for good
as well as for evil, and, to its praise be it said, so ready, in the main, to
lend its powerful aid to every worthy cause — will echo and re-echo these
many voices to the very ends of the earth. What iinagination can
grasp the amount of good which will, in this infinite variety of ways,
be accomplished through the congress, or forecast the progress thence
likely to result in a department of social science second in importance
to no other in the whole field of social investigation ?
7. The congress has given, or is destined to give, an immense* impulse
to the cause of prison reform. On this point it is enough to refer to
what has been written above, and to state that the evidences of a newly-
a wakened Interest in penitentiary questions, and of a strengthened
l^urpose to seek their just solution, are visible on every side.
8. It is not to be disguised that the summoning of such an assemblage
as that of the late Congress of London was a hazardous experiment.
It w-as, from the start, encompassed with dangers as well as difficulties :
and a peril far from inconsiderable, and awakening uo little anxiety,
and even some alarm in my mind, developed itself in the progress of its
labors. Eepresentatives from more than twenty different nationalities,
coming together literally from the ends of the earth, for .the study of
problems at once so important and so perplexed as those comprehended
in the field of penitentiary science, could not fail to develop a good
deal of difference of opinion, which might become so sharp as to end in
a violent disruption of the body. This is the peril referred to above as
Laving actually presented itself — rather, however, to those who were
more in the inner circle than to the ordinary observer. But by moder-
ation and prudence the danger was averted, and the congress was, in
the end, able to announce a series of propositions of the highest im-
portance, embodying its conception of the cardinal principles of prison
discipline. They are substantially those adopted by the Congress oi
Cincinnati, in 1870. This was a great result ; and the whole world may,
it seems to me, be congratulated on such a conclusion to the labors ol
the Congress of London. The propositions announced will enter as seed
into the public opinion of the world, and can hardly fail, in due time,
to make themselves felt in improved systems of criminal law and prison
discipline. Indeed, Professor Marquardsen, of Bavaria, a distinguished
member of the German Parliament, ]Kiblicly declared his conviction
that the new penal code for the German Empire, now under consideration
4 ' INTERXATIOXAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
by the Parliament, would be materially improved through the labors of
the congress.
9. The congress will have made a contribution of great value to the
literature of penology. Its volume of transactions will embody: 1, the
official reports of governments on the penitentiary systems and admin-
istrations of their respective countries ; 2, the discussions had on the
numerous and important questions which came before the body for its
consideration, taken down at the time by competent reporters; 3, the
papers submitted to the congress by distinguished si)ecialists in differ-
ent countries, most of them of remarkable ability, breadth, and power,
10. Another admirable result of the congress is the creation of a i^er-
manent international committee, charged with important functions in
the interest of international prison reform, and more particularly with
the duty of seeking to secure greater uniformity and trustworthiness
in international prison statistics. The committee is constituted as fol-
lows: Dr. Wines, United States, chairman; Signor BeltraniScalia,
Italy, secretary : Mr. G. W. Hastings, England; M. Loyson, France;
Dr. Guillaume, Switzerland; Mr. SteveuvS, Belgium; Mr. M. S.Pols,
Netherlands; I3r. Frey, Austria; Count Sollohub, Eussia: and Baron
Von Iloltzendorft', Germany. This committee will hold its first annual
meeting in Brussels, Belgium, in the month of September, 1873.
Doubtless one of the most important questions that will then come
before the committee will be that of calling another international pen-
itentiary congress, and if that question be decided affirmatively, the
duty will arise of fixing the time and place for holding it, and of deter-
mining the bases on which it shall be organized and conducted. It may
be hoped that this committee will form a kind of central bureau, to
■which intelligence relating to prison reform, and the progress made
therein, will be communicated, year by year, from all parts of the world,
and from which, in a condensed and digested form, it will be again dis-
tributed to every region of the globe. Thus every part of the world
will he kept informed of what is doing in every other part in reference
to this vital interest of society. In this way a continual circulation of
ideas on penitentiary' questions will be maintained ; the nature and re-
sult of experiments undertaken in any given country will be speedily
nuide known in every other: and an honorable rivalry will be kept up
between nations, in which each, while rejoicing iu every instance and
at every proof of progress elsewhere, will yet strive to outstrip its fel-
lows in the race of improvement.
1 1. Three great national commissions have already grown, not, indeed,
out of the congress, but out of the movement for the congress, having
been ci-eated before the body itself assembled, but not before the j^ropo-
sition for it had been submitted to the governments b^^ which the com-
missions have been inauguratcMl. The tirst is a royal commission for
Italy, named by the King last autumn, on a rei)ort submitted to him by
the i)rime minister, Mr. Ijanza, atfer an interview had with him by the
undei'sigiied, ;ind exjMessIy based on what passed at that interview.
1"he second is a h'gis];itive commission I'or ]<"'ran(H\created by tho National
Assemt)I.\-, in piiisnance of a i-eport sulunitted to that body by tlu» Vis-
count (ril;iMss((n\ ille and an a(;t i)assed on his motion early last winter.
'JMie distinguished mend»er a\'owed, in terms, that hfsreijort and motion
grew out of the. jMoposil ion Ibr the, Congress of London, and that the
labors of tite <;ommission were, in pait, intended as a ])iei)aration for
that assemblage. 'J"lu^ third is an imjieriai commission tor llussia,
named by de(n-ee of the Czar last siu'ing. The tirst two of these com-
missions,'^namely, tor Italy and France, have, for object, penitentiary
IiN'TliODUCTOm' CHAKACTER AND BENEFITS. 5
■ reforms in those countries. The third lias been created with a view, liot
of iini)roviii<;- an exisriuLi,' prison system, but of devisinj^' one entirely
new, tor a vast and [)Owerfiil emi)ire. They are all composed of eminent
citizens, chosen ou account of special fitness for the work to which they
Lave been called. The French comniission is formed, in one respect,
ou the model of the congress ; that is to say, it combines the official
and uouofBcial elements, which, as M. Lucas has shown, gave a char-
acter of special originality to that body. The act created a commission
of fifteen members of the Assembly, with authority to associate in their
hibors such other persons, from outside the legislative body, as they
might deem proper to invite. The commission is actually constituted of
fifteen members of the Assembly and fifteen private citizens summoned
to their aid.
12. The Congress of Loudon has made easy the holding of future con-
gresses of the same kind, since all agree that it has been a success, and
all unite in the desire that others, with similar aims and objects, should
follow, and, indeed, that a character of ])eriodicity should be given to
them. But, more than this, it has taught us how to prepare for and conduct
them in such a way as to derive the highest advantage from their labors.
The appreciation of the congress and its labors, contained in the fore-
goiuc? paragraphs, is shared by many eminent men in Europe, as corre-
vSpondence, had with them by the undersigned since its sessions were
closed, abundantly attests.. I venture, in proof of this, to offer a single
extract from one of the letters received within the period referred to.
It is from Mr. M. S. Pols, one of the oflicial delegates from Holland, who
took rank, by common consent, among the most intelligent, industriouSj
and useful members of the congress. Mr. Pols says :
I received a copy of the Loiulou Times contaiuing your letter, and ou nearly all
poiuts fnlly concur with you iu opinion. I never expected anj^ direct result from the
congress, nor do I believe such to be the case with any congress not specially convoked
for ibhe solution of a distinctly stated question. The great aim of such congresses is
to stir public opinion and to give it a mighty impulse iu some direction. This aim, I
believe, has been fully attained by the Loudon congress, and as I believe that public
opiuiou rules the world, not only in free countries, like, yours and mine, but even in
states seemingly directed by an uncontrolled executive power, the indirect results of
the congress will soon appear, and our (or, as I do not hesitate to say, your) work will
be proven not to have been fruitless. The thoroughly practical and scientific character
of the proceedings, the earnest, and on many poiuts exhaustive discussious, and the
nnanimous accord finally reached concerning so many great and important principles
of ijenifreutiary discipline, insure its success, which will prove the greater, as it will
be won by instillation and not bj' strong measures, too soon iu general counteracted by
reaction. Nor do I think it one of the least remarkable results of the congress that
men, so widely diverging as to the means of working out common principles, have met
one another without any quarreling or pei'sonal strife, but, without au exception that
I am aware of, have showu the greatest esteem for their strongest antagonists, the
largest toleratioii for adverse opinions. The absence of petty jealousies and personal
vanities insures, as I believe, au impartial and broad consideration of the rival sys-
tems.
The report which the undersigned has the honor now to submit to
the President will consist of five parts, as follows :
Part First will present a complete resume, arranged iu subjects, of the
information furnished in the olficiul rei)orts submitted to the congress
from the different countries, thus giving, at a glance, a comparative
view of the present state of prisou discipline and the ijrogress of prison
reform in the leading nations of the world.
Part Second will review and condense the proceedings of the congress,
giving the gist of the debates aud the main currents of opinion and
argument dev.elox)ed in th£m^
6 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
Fart Third ^svill contain some notice of the papers offered to the con-
gress, with an analysis of a portion of them.
Part Fourth vrill embody the results of the personal observations and
inquiries of the undersigned in relation to the prisons and reformatories
of Europe.
Part Fifth will deduce, from all that has gone before, its appropriate
lessons, and state them in the form of suggestions and recommendations.
PART FIRST.
STATE OF PRISONS.
CHAPTER I.
PRISON STSTEMS.
§ 1. Austria has three classes of prisons, those for male and female
prisoners being distinct establishments, viz : 1, prisons for persons sen-
tenced to more than one year of imprisonment ; U, prisons for persons
sentenced, to less than one year; 3, prisons of the district-courts for
minor offenses. Of the first class, there are eighteen, with a mean pop-
ulation of 10,490; of the second class there are sixty-two, with an aver-
age population of 7,103 ; of the third, neither the number of i)risoDS nor
the population is given.
The proportion of male prisoners to female in prisons of the first class
is as five to one, and in jorisons of the second class as six to one.
Until quite recently the associated system of imprisonment aloue ex-
isted in Austria. Since 1867 all new prison constructions have been
arranged in such manner that associated imprisonment may be com-
bined with cellular; so that, excepting short imprisonments, which, it is
held in Austria, ought to be wholly cellular, every *i3risoner should, as a
rule, spend at least the first eight months of his imprisonment in a cell,
and the remainder in association, under conditions of proper classifica-
tion, and a consequent graduaUj'improved treatment and a gradual prep-
aration for liberty. Several prisons of the first class have been built or
are in process of construction upon this |)lan, in which, nevertheless, it
isintended that one-third of theinmates shall undergp their entire punish-
ment in cells, and that the other two-thirds, after eight months of cellu-
lar confinement, shall pass into the state of association and enjoy the
benefits of a i^rogressive classification. One prison only of the second
class has thus far been arranged on this plan.
The considerations which have prompted this change are that collective
imprisonment, carried through the whole sentence, has been found by
experience incompatible with individual treatment, and consequently
obstructive as regards the moral improvement of the i^risoner, partic-
ularly in the old and ill-constructed country prisons, so that many are
made worse instead of better by their imprisonment. On the other
hand, the system of absolute isolation has been attended with this
disadvantage, that it makes the prisoner weak-willed, especially if the
confinement is long continued. It incapacitates him to meet success-
fully the temptations that beset him on his return to liberty. Difference
of culture is also found to give a wide difference of result in the
application of the cellular system, and many prove, on trial, wholly un-
fitted for isolation. On these grounds it has been judged wisest to
choose a middle course, and combine the two systems.
In prisons where the associated system is followed there exists a
classification of prisoners in the dormitories. Youthful criminals, espe-
cially, are kept as much as possible from old and hardened offenders;
8 INTEKXATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
and educated prisoners are not, if it can be avoided, placed with the
ignorant, the rnde, and the base. The opinion is expressed in the report
that tbe same classification should be (whence the inference is plain tliat
it is not) extended to the tii;:e and place when and where tbe prisoners
take their exercise. It is further declared that the basis of classifica-
tion should be age, education, state of n)ind, former life, degree of guilt,
aud tiie crime committed ; a principle which, in the opinion of the un-
dersigned, cannot, in regard to most of the particulars named, be ap-
plied with any great degree of certainty, and which, because of its arbi-
trary" character, would be of little value if it could.
There are two liinds of sentence in- Austria, viz: to simple or strict
imprisonment for serious offenses, and to simple or strict detention for
those of a lighter character. The punishment of imprisonment draws
after it the obligation to wear the prison garb, to submit to the prison
fare, and to perform the allotted work. Political prisoners are absolved
■from comi)ulsory labor and'from the prison dress, which last exemption
is also accorded to prisoners sentenced tosiniple imprisonment.
The i)unishment of strict detention involves a treatment conformed,
in respect of food aud labor, to the i)risou regulations, but the prisoner
is excused from wearing the prison dress and the work given him is of
a lighter character.
Simple detention is for persons under arrest, and means merely the
safe-keeping of the prisoner, who has the right to choose his own occu-
I)ation and, if he be so disposed, to provide his own food.
A singular adjustment of the relative duration of cellular and associ-
ated imprisonments has place in Austria. A recent enactment provides
that, after the lapse of three months passed consecutively in isola-
tion, every period of two days so passed shall count as three in the
term of his sentence. Another provision of the same act limits cellular
in)prisoument to three years and forbids the application of that s^'stem
to prisoners sentenced for life. •
The funds for the support of the prisoners come from the state. Here
and there, however, there exist small endowments in laud or monej',
the revenues of which are applied to that purpose. In Vienna tiiere is
an old arrangement, by Avliich all theaters and public exhibitions must
contribute an annual fixed sum, of which half is paid for the relief of
the poor and- the other half to the prison-funds of the province of
Lower Austria. The prisoners are by law obliged to pay the actual cost
of their keep out of. their own property. That part wliich goes to the
state is set oft' against the amount received for prison labor. In the
year 18G0, the sum i)aid to the state as the product of prison labor
amounted to only the fifteenth part of the sum spent on prisons by the
government.
Tlie diicctors and offic-ersof the i)risons of the state receive, when iu-
capacitate<l, the same i)ensions as its other servants. These pensions are :
After more than ten years of service, one-third ; twenty years, one-half;
thirty yeai\s, two-thiids; forty yeajs, the whoh^ of their last salary.
\i an oflicer bdbre serving ten years l)ec<»mes inca])ucitated he re-
<-eiv«'s, once for ail, a sum of money e<pial to ids last year's salary, if he
lias he<;oiiM^ incai)acitated by the service, as, for example, if he become
insane or blind, lie receives a })ension of one-(puirter or more, according
to (;ircumstan(;(^s, of his last year's salaiy.
§ L', Th(! stafenuMit in the report sid)mitted on the part of Delgium,
in relation to the classifurafion and nund)er of ])iisons in that kingdom,
is not peilectly cl(;ar. From its terms there would appear to l)e but two
{;eneial classes of penal establishments, or three, including those for
PRISON SYSTEMS AUSTRIA BELGIUM. 9
juvoriilcs, viz : 1, central prisons, corresponding to what among us are
known as state-prisons ; 2, houses of arrest (called provostal when de-
signed for the safe-keeping of military prisoners), which are found near
all tribunals of primary jurisdiction and all courts of justice, for the
custody of persons awaiting examination or trial, and also for tlie pun-
ishment of prisoners convicted of minor offenses; 3, houses of refuge
for jurenjles, of both sexes, acquitted as having acted without knowl-
edge, but placed under the care of the government^for a certain period,
to be educated and trained to industry and virtue.
The cellular system carries by far the larger number of voices in Bel-
gium, and has the high honor of counting, in that number, its ablest
and most earnest living defender, M. Stevens, inspector-general of
prisons for the kingdom. Of the twenty-six prisons in Belgium,
eighteen are conducted on the cellular system, and of the six congregate-
prisons four are undergoing alterations to adapt them to the system of
separate imprisonment. The report submitted to the congress by the
Belgian authorities states that the legislature has given its preference
to the cellular system, because it renders repression more efficacious
and because the reformation of the convict is thereby better ijisured.
The results claimed for the system in that country will be more fully
set forth in Part Second of this report.
The number of prisoners confined in the Belgian prisons is not given;
but the two sexes are stated to be represented in the proportion of 88
per cent, of men and 12 pef cent, of women.
There are three kinds of sentence pronounced by the tribunals of
Belgium, viz, to imprisonment, to reclusion, and to hard labor. Sen-
tences to simple imprisonment are from eight days to five years; sen-
tences to reclusion from five to ten years ; to hard labor from ten to
twenty years or for life. The report states that the diifereuce in the
treatment of prisoners sentenced to hard labor consists in this, that the
first are confined in houses of correction, the second in houses of reclu-
sion, and tlie third in convict-prisons. This statement is by no means
clear, and the obscurity is increased by the fact that, in the enumera-
tion of prisons, as given in a previous part of the report, no mention
is made of either houses of correction or houses of reclusion.
In the congregate penal prisons the prisoners are divided into three
classes. The lowest class comprises those whose antecedents are the
most unfavorable and whose conduct is bad. This class bears the
name of punishment-division. The middle class comprises prisoners
whose antecedents, without being decidedly unfavorable and their con-
duct absolutely bad, have, nevertheless, need to be subjected to a pro-
bation, longer or shorter, before being definitively classed. This class
has the name of probation-division. The third is composed of prisoners
Avho, by their antecedents or their good conduct in the penitentiary,
have claim to a special distinction. This class bears the name of recom-
pense-division.
These three classes, although subjected to the same rer/ime and the
same exercises, are nevertheless the objects of special distinctions. In
order to be able to recognize the prisoners who belong to each, a dis-
tinctive mark in the clothing is adopted for each division. Tlie prison-
ers of the puliishment-division are subjected to the most painful labors,
are deprived of the cantine, and suffer various privations, especially
that of visits from and correspondence with the outside, except in
urgent cases, which are left to the judgment of the director. The pas-
sage from one division into another is determined by the administrative
commission, on the i)roposal of the director. To this end the records of
10 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
conduct and of pnnisliment are consulted. Tlie examination for classi-
fication talies place daring the first third of each year, unless ottener
made necessary by exceptional circumstances resulting from o\'ercrowd-
ing in one or other of the sections.
The numbers of the prisoners assigned to each division are inscribed
on a roster suspended on the wall.
The first classification is made by the director according to the known
antecedents of the convict on his entrance, the circumstances revealed
on the occasion of his conviction, and the notes which are forwaixled by
the courts. The results of this system of classifying are not stated, but
there is an implication that they are not particularly remarkable in an
opinion expressed to the effect that, " to obtain solid results in a, disci-
I^linary and moral point of view, it would be necessary to ap[)ropriate
special wards to the different classes."
The funds needed for the support of the prisoners are derived from the
same source as the funds required for the support of the other de])art-
ments of the public service. The cost of each day's support is counted
in gross, without taking account of the product of the prison labor,
which is turned over to the treasury. The value of this labor is not
stated.
The pension granted to prison-officers who have become incapacitated,
before the proper time for retirement, for a further discharge of their
duties, is regulated on the footing of the average salary of their last
five years of service. The pension allowed them on retiring is the same
as that allowed to all the other functionaries of the government.
§3. In Denmark there are two general classes of sentences, viz, to
imprisonment and to hard labor. There are three kinds of imprison-
ment: 1, imprisonment from two days to two years, during whicli the
prisoner, though restrained of liberty, is permitted to procure whatever
comforts he can by his own efforts; 2, imprisonment on common prison-
fare from two days to six months, during Avhich the prisoner is sub-
jected to the disci]>line of the prison and restricted to the ])resoribed
jn'ison fare ; 3, imprisonment on bread and water from two to thirty days.
These punishments are uiulergone in the same buildings wliere persons
not yet sentenced are detained. Every jurisdi(;tion has its jail, the
whole number in the kingdom being ninety-three. They vary greatly
in size, that in Copenhagen having accommodations for more than two
hundred inmates, while the smaller ones can receive only from four to
six. The ordinary inimber of persons, in the whole country, who are
either awaiting trial or sentenced to imprisonment in jail, is about five
liundnMl. These jails are constructed and maintained at the expense of
t])e jurisdiction in whi(;h they are situated. J>y far the great^in- part are
of recent (MUistruction ; and as none can be built or mateiially altered
without an approval of the plan by the ministry, the sanu> i)r!n('.iples of
construction are realized wil.ii res[)ect to all. Tlie law re(|uires that im-
])risonm('nt in the jails be cellular, uidess positively forbidden by the
in(Hii(*al officer. Conserpiently all the cells in the more recent construc-
tions are for single persons, and contain al)out 800 cubic feet of space.
SentencM'S to hard labor are of two kinds, viz, to "labor for ame-
liorating" and "lal)or for ])unishing." Sentences of the first class, from
eight months to six yeais, are undergone in houses of corfecliou. The
imprisonment is c.elluhir, l)ut-, with deductions from tiie ttu-nis of sen-
tence, expicssly on the ground of the isolation of llie ])risoniM' increas-
ing in j)i-opoition to tlie length of tlM> sentence. Thus a nominal sen-
teiu'e of eiglit months is leihieed to six, and one ol six years to three
and a iuilf, tiiis latter btang the longest period pernjitted by the laws of
PRISON SYSTEMS DENMARK FRANCE. 11
Denmark for punislirneiit in separate cells. The persons sentenced to
this denomination of labor are either, first, those who have coniinicted
a slight offense or, at least, a crime not so great as to receive a sentence
of more thtMi six years ; or, secondly, those who liave not been pre-
viously convicted ; or, thirdly, young criminals, not exceeding twenty-
five years. They are, consequently, without exception, persons whose
moral regeneration may be hoped for.
Sentences to hard laljor of the second class, ranging from two years
to life, are undergone in prison!^ on the Auburn plan, the prisoners be-
ing together in the daytime, but separated at night. The prisoners so
sentenced are divided into two classes. The first receive sentences of
two to six years, being persons of a more advanced age, or who have
been punished before. Their crimes are not great, but their moral vigor
is broken. They form the fixed stock of the prisons, inveterate thieves,
an assemblage of i)ersous wretched and enervate, as well in a moral as
in a bodily i)oint of view ; ruined by idleness, drink, and debauchery.
The second class receive sentences from six years to life. They have
the name of " great criminals," but, though the crime committed may
be grave, it does not follow that it has necessarily sprung out of a
thoroughly corrupted nature; on the contrary, it often stands solitary
and has been committed in a momentary passion or under great mental
depression.
For criminals sentenced to ^' hard labor for ameliorating," there is
one prison (male) on the cellular system. For those sentenced to " hard
labor for punishing," there are three, (two male and one female,) all on
the associated plan. However, as there is but one prison for women, it
contains prisoners sentenced to "ameliorating" as well as to " punish-
ing labor ; " but the former are treated on the cellular, as the latter
on the congregate, principle. The four prisons have accommodations
for an aggregate of seventeen hundred inmates. The average number
is about twelve hundred, and the iiroportiou of women a fraction over
12 per cent.*
While I am writing this report, a letter reaches me from Mr. Bruiin,
in which he says that his first work, after his return from London, was
to draw up, on the request of the ministry, a proposal touching the
manner of carrying into effect the punishment in the congregate prisons,
based on the resolutions formed by the congress.
§ 4. The prisons of France are comprehended in six classes, to wit :
1, penal colonies ; 2, central prisons ; 3, departmental prisons ; 4, es-
tablishments for the correctional education of juvenile delinquents ;
5, chambers, or depots of safe-keeping; G, prisons for the army and
navy.
Formerly, persons sentenced to hard labor received their punishment
in galleys. There remains but one establishment of this kind at present,
the bagnio at Toulon. The galley-prisons have, since 1854, been re-
placed by transportation to penal colonies. Of these there are three, viz,
in Algeria, in Guiana, and in New Caledonia — an island of Oceanica — the
latter being the most important and the most hopeful. The colony of
New Caledonia was created in 18G4. This island offers, by the salubrity
of its climate and the fertility of its soil, conditions propitious to trans-
portation. The transportation of women is authorized by the law, in
view of marriages to be contracted with the convicts after their provi-
*The official report from Denmark being very brief, I bave aupplemeuted the infor-
mation given in it by recourse to a paper on " Prison-Discipline in Denmark," pre-
pared for the Cincinnati congress by Mr. Bruiin, supreme director of prisons in Den-
mark.—E. C. W.
12 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIAEY CONGRESS.
sioDal or definitive, liberation. Tlie administration selected, from amon;]^
tlie female prisoners of every class, those who expressed a desire to
profit by these arrangements. These women are placed, to nndergo
their punishment until their provisional or definitive libyaration, in a
special establishment at Maroni, under the sn[)er vision of the religious
ladies of Cherry. The majority of females, however, sentenced to hard
labor still undergo their punishment in the Central prisons of the con-
tinent.
The central prisons of France correspond to the state prisons in the
United States. Their legal designation is " prisons of hard labor and
correction." The}^ receive three classes of prisoners, viz, woiuen of all
ages and men of the age of sixty and upivard, persons sentenced to
reclusion, and persons sentenced as correctionals to an imprisonment
of more than a year.
The departmental prisons are so called, not only because they are
devoted to the exclusive service of the departments in wliich they are
placed, but still more from considerations of property and maintenance;
they have also the name of houses of arrest, of justice, and of correction.
These prisons receive the arrested ; the accused ; the correctionals sen-
tenced to one year and less; persons Sentenced to severer punishments
who are awaiting their transfer; police prisoners; persons imprisoned
for debts in matters criminal, correctional, of simple police, and of Jisc;
juvenile prisoners, whether arrested, accused, or committed in the way
of paternal correction, and civil and military prisoners eii route. In
general, the three houses are but three distinct wards in the same
establishment, although, to answer the intention of the law, the house
of correction, as being a place of punishment, should be tlistiuct from
the other tuo.
The establislimeuts devoted to the correctional education of juvenile
delinquents receive minors of both sexes of sixteen years and under.
These will be considered more at length under another head.
The name of chambers for safe-keeping is given to places in which
are received prisoners who are being conveyed from point to point in
localities where there is no house of arrest, of justice, or of correction.
These chambers and depots have the same destination as such houses,
and are but places for the temporary confinement of prisoners en route.
The military prisons need not be described in this rei)()rt.
The cellular system is not applied in any central prison. The disci-
pline of these prisons is that of detention in common with the obliga-
tion of silence. Some of them, however, have cellular wards, in which
may be confined certain classes of ])risoners.
Out of four hundred dcpartmeutal i)ris()ns, fifty are constructed on the
celhdar system ; but even in these, or at huist a large i)roportion of tliein,
it is the edifice only wliich is celhdar, the system being in reality that
of association by day, whilov separation is restricted to the night; so
that no att(;m[>t is made in the report from France to establish a com-
parison of the results yielded by the two systems. The report declares
that the results obtaiiu'd by the existing system are far from Ixnng satis-
factory. i\Iore than 51) per <;ent. of the male ])risoners and about one-
third of the women discharged IVom the central jnisons fall back into
Ci'ime. The rei)ort strenuously ailvocates the abandoiiMU'nt of the
rc(/iin(; in comiifon, so far as the arrested, the accused, and i)ersons
sentetieed to short imjjrisouments art; concern(!(l.
The, i)art (loiitrihuted l)y tiu! labor of the ])iisoners toward Ihe cost of
inainlciianc<i is placc(l at 50 jicr cent, in the ccnti'al i)rison.s aud at 17
per cent, in the departniental prisons, the delicaency beiug made up from
PRISON SYSTEMS — FRANCE BADEN. 13
the public exclioquor. Some of tlie centra! prisons, liowever, do inncli
better than this. In one of the fenuUe central i)rison8 it has been possi-
ble entii'cly to withdraw the sal>sidy granted by the state, the earnings
of the prisoners being sufficient for the support of the establislmieut. In
another central prison the earnings more than defray the cost, and in sev-
eral that result is approached more or less nearly. It is hoped from,
these examples that the administration will at length attain the end
which it has always sought in this regard — that of exempting the treas-
ury from the personal expenses of the prisoners who are conliued in
its great i>risons for punishment.
The difference between sentences to simple imprisonment, to reclusion,
and to hard labor, which are the three kinds of sentence known in
France, is thus explained: Simple imprisonment is a correctional pun-
ishment, its duration being for six days at least and five years at most.
It is undergone in a departmental prison if its duration falls within a
3'ear; if beyond that, in a central prison. Eeclusion is a punishment
attlictive and infamous. The sentence to it, which is from five to ten
years, is always served in a central prison. It implies the loss of civic
rights. Hard labor is an afflictive and infamous punishment. A sen-
tence to it for life involves civic degradation and civil death. The
sentence which iaiposes the punishment of hard labor is printed and
posted in the central city of the department, in the city where the
sentence was pronounced, in the commune where the crime was com-
mitted, and in that of the domicile of the convict. Criminals sentenced
to hard labor for a limited term are, at the expiration of their sentence
and during their whole life, legally under the supervision of the police.
Classification of prisoners has been practised to some extent both in
the departmental and central prisons; but, apparently, it has not been
such as to lead to solid results. An experiment, liowever, of great
interest, was inaugurated a few years ago in this direction. Wards, to
which has been given the name of wards of preservation and amend-
ment, have been established in many central prisons, and a})proi)riated
to persons sentenced for a first offense, committed under the influence
of a sudden impulse or of some violent momentaiy passion. This
experiment promises the best results. The prisoners placed in these
wards have shown themselves sensible to the distinction of which they
have been made the object and have exerted themselves to justify it
by their good conduct. The cases are extremely rare in which it has
been found necessary to put them back into the common ward.
The different agents of the penitentiary administration are subject, as
regards their retirement and the ])ension that may be granted them, to the
rules embodied in the law of the Dtli of June, 1853, relating to civil pensions.
The principle laid down by this law is that every public functionary,
paid directly from the funds of the state, has a legal claim to a retiring-
pension, when he fulHlls the required conditions of age and of continu-
ance in the service, that is to say, when he has attained the age of sixty
and has accomplished a service of twenty years. It is important to
remark that account is made of military services when there are super-
added to them twelve years, at least, of civil services. Moreover, a
pension can be granted at fifty years of age, and after twenty years of
service, to those who have become incapacitated from a longer discharge
of official duty by grave infirmities resulting- from the exercise of their
functions. In short, this same law relieves from every condition of age
and continued service, 1, those who may have been disabled from
continuing their service, whether as the result of an act of devotion in
some public interest, or in exposing their own life to save the life of one
14 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
of tlieir fellow-citizens, or as tbe result of a struggle or combat encoun-
tered iu the discharge of their duties; 2, those to whom a grave
accident, resulting, notoriously, from the exercise of their functions,
shall have made it impossible to continue them.
§ 5. The German Empire was represented by a delegate named by the
central government, but no report was submitted on behalf of the whole
empire. Five states, however — Baden, Bavaria, Prussia, Saxony, and
Wiirtemberg — submitted reports each for itself.
(1) There are four classes of prisons iu Baden : Houses of correc-
tion ; central prisons, of which, however, there is but one ; district-
prisons; and fortresses.
Prisoners sentenced to hard labor are placed in houses of correction ;
prisoners sentenced to more than six weeks of imprisonment are placed
ill the central prison, and those sentenced to less than six weeks in dis-
trict-prisons. The district-prisons are also used for the safe keeping of
persons awaiting trial. There is one prison of this kind for each of the
tifty-three district-courts of the grand duchy. The report does not state
^vhat class of criminals are sentenced to fortresses, but simply that the
number of such is small. It further states that the punishment of those
thus contiued, as well as of the inmates of district prisons, is simply
privation of liberty, the prisoners being free as to the choice of food
and occui)ation.
The punishment of prisoners contiued in houses of correction and in
the central prison is undergone in cells, as is also the imprisonment of
persons under arrest. Certain restrictions, however, have yjlace as
regards the intiiction of imprisonment on the cellular plan. It cannot
be extended, contrary to the prisoner's wish, beyond three years ; nor
can it, if he be between the ages of twelve and eighteen y/.-ars and if
he object, be applied beyond a maximum of six months. Those Avho
object to this kind of imprisonment beyond the terms named above,
and those who are pronounced by the medical ofilicers unfit for it, are
treated on the plan of association ; nevertheless, they are associated
only during the hours of labor; and they are, as far as possible, classi-
fied for distribution in the work shops according to their personal quali-
ties, and in a manner best suited to promote their moral amendment.
The results of the cellular system have been favorable, and so have
those of the congregate system when it has been organized and carried
out on right priucii)les.
The number of prisoners confined, January 1, 1871, and which ])rob-
ably rejjresents about the average, was: Houses of correction, 303;
central prison of Bruchsal, 441; district-prisons, under sentence, 198 —
awaiting trial, 227; total, 1,1G9. Of these, 85 per cent, were men and
1.5 |)('r ('cnt. women.
The suppoitoCthe ])risons is derived from three sources, viz: 1, pay-
ments by i)iis()ners who have property; these amount to very little ;
2, tiie, labor of the prisoners; Ij, subsidies by the state.
'J'lic gjiins liom prison-labor (lilTcr materially, according to the dura-
tion of the piinislinicnt, tiu', kind (»ri)rison, and the number in each. Tiie
])rodnct of the tiades <;iirried on in the cellular i)rison of Bruchsal has
Hometimes siiniccd to pay the wliole expense of the eslal>lishni<'nt, with
the excejition of the salaries of oilicers; and for twenty yenrs it has, on
theaverage, ])i\'u\ consi<leral)ly moic- than two-thirds of the current ex-
penses of the |»rison.
To su|)erior oflicers, on retirement from service, there is granted
an annual pension equal to lour-liftiis of their salary; to the inferior,
equal to one half.
PRISON SYSTEMS BAVARIA PRUSSIA. 15
(2) The classification of the prisons of Bavaria is as follows : 1,
houses of correction ; 2, prisons for adult criminals sentenced for a
term exceeding three months and for juvenile delinquents for a tenu
exceeding one month ; 3, district-prisons of courts of justice for adult
criminals sentenced for less than three months and for juveniles sentenced
for less than one mouth. ; 4, police prisons for persons arrested and held
lor trial.
There are distinct prisons for men and women of the class called
Louses of correction ; in other i^risons the two sexes are placed in differ-
ent ])arts of the establishment.
For persons convicted of crimes against property — theft, fraud, rob-
bery, obtaining money or goods under false prtjtenses, extortion, receiv-
ing stolen property, »&c., and sentenced to a term exceeding three
months — special prisons are provided, to which no other prisoners are
sent.
Bavaria has four cellular prisons. One of these only is for sentenced
prisoners ; the other three for persons awaiting trial. All the other
prisons of the kingdom are on the congregate plan.
Cellular imprisonment has existed for only a few years in Bavaria,
and consequently (the report states) accurate data touching its effect
cannot be given. But the system of isolation, it is added, gains ad-
herents daily, because of the evil effects of the collective system as
there practised.
The classification of prisoners is not carried to any great extent ; yet
the governors must keep i^risoners of average good conduct apart from
those who give little hope of improvement and whose exam[>le would
exert a hurtful influence on others.
The funtls for the support of the prisons are derived from the i)roducts
of prison-labor, from fines, and from the public chest. The first of these
sources yields 16 to 18 i^er cent, of the cost 5 the second, 28 to 32 per
cent. ; and the state pays the balance.
The pension, on retirement, is regulated by the len gth of service. If
retirement becomes necessary within the first ten years, it is seven-tenths
of the salary; if within the second ten, eight-tenths; if within the third
ten, nine-tenths ; and after forty years of service, or after the officer
has reached the age of seventy, the pension is the entire salary.
(3) The prisons of Prussia are: 1, prisons exclusively for hard labor,
29; 2, prisons for imprisonment and simple detention, 15 ; 3, prisons
of a mixed character, 11; 4, houses of correction for the punishment of
slight offeii^es, 16 ; total, 71. They will hold 26,500 prisoners. Forty-
seven i^risons are provided, to a less or greater extent, with cells for
separate imprisonment day and night, the whole number being 3,247.
There is but one prison organized exclusively on the cellular system.
There are, altogether, only 2,000 separate cells for isolation at night, a
number (the report says) wholly insufficient, but it is increasing dliily
by new additions.
There is no sensible difference between the two systems as regards
reformatory results. The number of relapses has not been diminished by
cellular treatment. Yet some remarkable refornmtions, even of hardened
criminals, have been accomplished by cellular itnprisonment, concerning
which a doubt is expressed whether they could or would have been
effected by imprisonment in common. The effect of cellular separation
upon prisoners during their incarceration is said to be decidedly favor-
able, and, in the comparison, superior to that of associated imprison-
ment.
The punishments awarded by virtue of the penal code are: 1, hard
16 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
labor, the severest — inflicted for lifer or for a time ; miniinuni one year,
maximum tifteeii — draws after it eompnlsory labor, without restriction
of kind or place, and various civil disabilities ; 2, simple imprisonment —
maximum five years ; no compulsion to work outside of the })rison or ;it
occupations not in accord with the capacity of the prisoner and with his
previous social position; 3, imprisonment in a. fortress — intiicted for
life or a time; maximum, in the latter case, fifteen years — is a simple
privation of liberty, with supervision over the prisoner's occupation and
mode of life ; 4, detention for trifliui;- offenses — maximum six weeks —
consists in a simple privation of liberty, but may be intensified by com-
pulsory labor, when inflicted for vagrancy, begging, or professional
prostitution. The minin.ium imprisonment under the last three kinds
of sentence is one day.
The classification of prisoners in Prussia goes little further than the
separation of the younger from the older criminals.
Prison officers rendered incapable of further service receive a pension,
whose 'amount is regulated by the laws regarding the retiring allow-
ances of all other state officers. To gain a right to a pension, ten years
must be served: the pension increases with each additional year of
service. It can, however, never exceed three-fourths of the salary.
(4) The prisons of Saxony are divided into the following classes : pris-
ons lor severe punishment, 2 ; prisons for less severe punishment, 3 ;
prison in fortress, 1; reformatory prisons, o; prisons belonging to
courts of justice, (number not stated ;) prisons belonging to policecourts,
(number not stated.) The average number of criminals for 1871 was:
In the first class of prisons, 1,153 ; in the second class, 1,001 ; in a for-
tress, 1; in reformatories, (otherwise called houses of^ correction,) 6S-1;
in the fifth and sixth classes, 1,800 ; total, 4,(539. «
For more than twenty years there has been in Saxony a conviction
that sentences of imprisonment should be undergone only for the exj)ia-
tion of crime, the i)iotection of society, and to deter the prisoner from
the commission of subsequent offenses. The Saxon government has,
therefore, two principal objects in its penal system: the satisfaction of
justice and Ihe reformation of the prisoner.
Since 18r>0 the pe'nitentiary of Zuickau has been specially distinguished
by a successful ap])lication of the principle of reformation by means of
individual treatment. The Saxon government was in consequence
induced to extinid the same system to all its ])risoiis. The government
more readily placed confidence in the new method, because it works by no
complicat(!d apparatus, complies with existing circumstances, is based
upon, the i)riiiciple of individual treatment, and so combines different
modes of imprisonment as to gain the best results. Thus, the common
modes ol" ini|)risonment and treatment are excluded ; and, just as a ])hy-
sician presciil>es suitable medicine and diet for his patients, so the ad-
ministration ])rovides fit (Mlucation, work, and food for its ])risoners.
^J'he penitent iaiy of Zuickau gave proofs that this idea was not only
theoretically right, but also i)racticable. The government, theivfore, in
]8o4, icsolved tliat all the Saxon i)iisons slionld ad()i)t the n(nv regula-
tions for internal management and the treatment of ])risoiHM's. A(;coi'd-
ingly, there is in Saxony no |)enitentiary wherc^ eif liei' solitary or col-
]ecti\'e imi»rison?nent is exclusi\-ely employed ; both imxles are used,
according to the piisoners' indi\idual wants. Saxony has eleven ])ris-
ons where, especially during the last ten years, the reforms mentioned
above have been canied out.
(.'■>) Tlur jtrisons of the grand dueliy of Wiirteinberg are: Prisons of
rcclusion, 4; countiy prisons, 3; (brtress, 1; ])rison lor minors, 1 ; dis-
PRISON SYSTEMS SAXONY WURTEMBERG. 17
trict prisons, (uumber not stated.) Of tlie first class, two are exclusively
for lueUjOne exclusively for women, and one for prisoners of both sexes.
Criuiiuals sentenced to reclusion and haid labor are placed in tliese
establishments. In tlie second class, sentences for minor offenses are
undergone, the maximum of the imprisonment being for four weeks.
The district prisons are mainly for persons under arrest, but minor
oftenders are also punished iu them for a. term not exceeding four
■weeks.
The congregate system of imprisonment, with common dormitories,
still prevails in Wiirtemberg, although cells for isolated deteutiou are
found in all tlie prisons, some of which are used for separation at night
and others for purposes of discipline. But it has been resolved to make
trial of the cellular system, and to that eiul a special prison has been
erected at Heilbronu, which is expected soou to be opened for the recep-
tion of prisoners.
The expense of maintaining the prisons, so far as it is not defrayed
by the industrial labor and payments of the prisoners, is borne by the
state, which, on the average, contributes about 35 percent, of the total
expense of prisons; the remaining 05 per cent, is derived from the in-
come of the prisons themselves, but the prisoners' payments form only a
small part of tlie amount. What comes from the prisoners is mostly the
result of their labor.
§ 6. The official report on the prisons of Italy commences with an
explanation of the circumstances of the country. The various provinces
of the Italian peninsula, divided, for ceuturies into so many different
states, at length united under the house of Savoy, brought with them
to the union, each its own laws, institutions, and traditions. It is,
therefore, yot to be wondered at that there should be found in Italy a
wide di\ersity in penal legislation, and, consequently, great variety in
the punishmeuts adopted and in the mode of carrying them out.
Thus, the law of the Tuscan provinces had abolished capital
punish tueut since 1859 ; the ISTeapolitau and Sicilian legislation
still inflicted this sentence in twenty-two cases; in other provinces
of the kingdom capital punishment was decreed in ticenty seven
cases. Again, the Tuscan provinces had adopted the system of con-
tinual isolation ; others preferred and were adopting the Auburn system.
In some provinces, fetters were in use both for males and females sen-
tenced to a long imprisonment; in others, they were entirely abolished.
In some proviuces, only those convicts sentenced to the heavier i)unish-
ments were admitted into the bagnios; iu others, these establishments
served as prisons also to those sentenced only for a few years ; in otliers,
again, they were entirely proscribed. This diversity in the penal codes
and the variety iu the methods of incarceration could not be at once
done away with, but the government is directing its eflorts to the ref-
ormation and complete unification of its iienal legislation.
For detention before trial there are the central or c])ief prisons of the
provinces, the district prisons, and the communal jails, (number not
stated.) For penal detention there are: Bagnios, for criminals sentenced
to hard labor for life or a limited time, 21 ; bridewells, for prisoners
sentenced to reclusion or public works, 11 ; prisons for those sentenced
to relegation or banishment, 3; houses of correction, for persons sen-
tenced to simple imprisonment, 6; special establishments, (classed under
the general name of houses of punishment,) 10; special prisons for
women, 5; houses of correction for juvenile convicts, (minors.) 1 ; estab-
lishments for forced detention (reformatories) of idlers, vagabonds, and
youths admitted by request of parents for correction, (which also receive
H. Ex. 185^ 2
18 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
juvenile offenders before trial,) 31 ; agricultural colonies, 2; penal estab-
lishment for invalids, 1.
The jails and prisons, as varying in their systems of imprisonment, may
thus be classified : two on the system of continued isolation ; two on the
system partly of continued isolation and partly of association ; five on
the Auburn system complete ; two partly on the Auburn system, j)artl3'
on that of community, and forty-five on the community system.
The question of establishing a hospital for lunatic convicts and a
nautical reformatoj'y is now under consideration by the central admin-
istration.
The average number of inmates of the jails (places of preliminary de-
tention and miubr punishments) for 1871 was 45,083; of the peniten-
tiaries, 10,738; of the bagnios, 15,118 ; of the prisons for juvenile con-
victs under age, 573.
The system of continued isolation has been decreed for all detention-
prisons. Several jails have been erected on this phm, others are in process
of erection, and pkms for a still greater number are under study.
In the sense of assigning prisoners to different penal establishments
accordingtotheir crimes and sentences, a complete system of classification
exists. In the detention-prisons, the follovving classes are,^ as much as
l)Ossible, separated from each other: the arrested, (who are at the dis-
I)osal of the authorities of public safety,) the accused awaiting trial,
those sentenced for terms not exceeding a year, those detained in tran-
sit or sentenced and awaiting transfer, women, minors, and i)ersons
imprisoned for debt. In the bagnios there are recognized four divisions,
Avith sei)arate dormitories for each. They are : those sentenced for mili-
tary crimes or assaults, those sentenced for theft,those sentenced for high-
way robbery, and those convicted of atrocious crimes, such as assassina-
tion, homicide, &g. Each of these four divisions is subdivided into
three categories, distinguished by marks on their dress, according to
their terms of sentence.
The funds for tlie su])i)ort of the prisons are drawn from the general
budget of the state. For the financial results of the prisoners' labor,
reference is made tb the ofiicial statistics, for which examination the
undersigned has no lime.
The pension to which the directors and officers of the prisons are
entitled, after a service of at least twenty-five years, is determined on
the same ])rin<;ii)le as tliat of every other ollicer in the civil service of the
state. Thus, when retired after twenty-live years of service, they have
as many foitictiis of their salary, wlien it does not exceed two thousand
Italian livres, and as many sixtieths when it is more than two thousand
livres, as tlieii" years of service. But without regard to the twenty-five
years of service there are cases of pensions granted to all classes of
officers, when one becomes incapaciatcd by a wound (caused by some
extraordinary act ])crformed in the dischai'ge of his olficialduties, or b}'
a disease (;ontra<'ted in the public service.
§ 7. A (fommission of <listinguishcd and able citizens was ap])oint('d
by the go\(;nimeiit of the; icpuhlii; of jAlcxico, which the undersigned
lia<l the. honor to rej)resent in the (.'ongi<'s.s of l^ondon as well as that
of the United Stales, to <liaw up a rep(>rt in answer to tln^ series of
(piestions sul»iiiitled (o that as well as to the other governments, which
weie in\ited lo take pait in tlu', movenuMit. On the subje(;t of the
prison system of Mexico, the commission say that in the capital of the
rej)iil»]ic thei(^ are two juisons, one for those who are simply arrested
and detained, and the olliei' for adult i)ris<)ne.rs who are to be tried or
have been already sentenced. Young children sentenced to a term of
PRISON SYSTEMS ITALY MEXICO NETHERLANDS. 19
imprisonment are placed in an' establishment called " hospicio de los
l^obres," [hospital of the poor.) For the punishment of criminal children
between nine and eighteen 5'Gars of age, tliere is a spi^cial establisli-
ment, where tliey receive an elementary religious education and learn
a trade.
The system of imprisonment is that of association. Its results are
stated to have been very sad, the prisoners generally leaving the
prisons worse than when they entered. Penitentiaries on the cellular
system are in course of erection in several of the stat.es. Only one has,
so far, been completed.
As regards the proi)ortion contributed by the labor of the prisoners
towards defraying the cost of maintaining the prisons, the commission
reports only in relation to the Federal district and Louver California,
where it is from 40 to 50 per cent.
§ 8. In the Netherlands four classes of prisons exist : The central
prisons, for criminals sentenced to eighteen months and over ; deten-
tion-prisons, for terms of sentence less than eighteen months; houses
of arrest, tor sentences of three months and under; and police or can-
tonal prisons^ for sentences not exceeding a month. The tiiree classes
last named also receive prisoners under, arrest and awaiting trial.
In some cases all three are united together, forming a single establish-
ment.
Both systems of imprisonment, cellular and associated, have place in
the Netherlands. In no case, however, can cellular separation be ex-
tended beyond a period of two years. The two systems are stated in
the report to be applied not uniformly in the different prisons estab-
lished on each plan, but in a manner quite irregular and little har-
nionious; consequently the resuHs obtained are not such as to permit a
fair and reliable comparison. Hence, there exists in the country a
great difference of opinion on the question of preference. Still, the
cellular vsystem, considered in itself, and apart from the manner of ap-
plying it and the limits to be imposed on it, s(;arcely encounters any
adversaries; and, for short imprisonments, public opinion is well-nigh
unanimous in its favor.
The classification of prisoners does not seem to receive much atten-
tion in the Netherlands. In the central prisons, the more hardened and
dangerous, and those sentenced on re-conviction, are separated from
the other prisoners. The results are reported as favorable.
The funds for the support of the prisons are a charge upon the annual
budget of the state. The part contributed by the labor of the i)risou-
ers is quite inconsiderable.
The pensions granted to prison-officers when they become incapaci-
tated for further service are the same as those accorded to all other
employes of the state. Beyond this statement no information is
given.
The general proportion in which the sexes are represented in the
Netherlands prisons is about twenty women to a hundred men ; but
this proportion varies, especially in the different provinces.
§ 9. There are four classes of prisons in Norway : Prisons established
in fortresses, 3 ; houses of correction, 4; a penitentiary, 1 ; district-pris-
ons, (corresponding to our common jails,) 50.
The system of imprisonment is that of association in the fortresses
and houses of correction, and of separation in the penitentiary, and,
to a very considerable extent, also, in the district prisons.
The sentences to the penitentiary range from six months to six years ;
but these sentences are shortened one-third, because of the system of
20 INTEENATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
iiiiprisonraent (cellular) applied there. 'No comparison of results yielded
by the two systems is given.
- The average uumber of prisoners in the fortresses is 217 j in the
houses of correction, 940; in the penitentiary, 224; in the district
prisons, not stated. The proportion of women in the district prisons
cannot be accurately ascertained from the statistical returns ; but in
the penal establishments it is nearly one fourth.
No classification of the prisoners is carried out in the prisons based
on the system of association, but, in distributing the prisoners in the
work rooms and dormitories, care is taken to keej) the less corru[)ted
prisoners separate, as far as possible, from the older and more danger-
ous criminals. In the penitentiary has been introduced a system of
I)rogressive classification, based on the zeal and merit of the prisoners,
through which some mitigation of their punishment is gradually af-
forded, by way of allowing the prisoners, to a larger extent than be-
fore, to read, write, receive the visits of their relatives, work in the
open air, &c.
The liensions allowed to prison-officers on retirement are not regu-
lated by law, but are matter of parliamentary grant in each individual
case.
The expenses of the penal institutions are defrayed out of the ex-
chequer, less the proceeds of the prison-labor. These expenses, in 1S72,
were 203,410 thalers, of which 109,970 thalers were met by the earnings
of the piisoners, leaving 93,440 thalers to be supplied by the state.
The expenses of the district prisons are paid by the districts in which
they are severally situated. Nevertheless the exchequer has to pay for
medicines, medical attendance, spiritual assistance, and the necessary
clothing of the prisoners ; besides which the district receives from the
excheqner an allowance of 24 skilling, equal to 11(7. sterling, a day for
every jirisoner. The balance to be paid by the district after these va-
rious grants cannot, one would think, be very onerous.
§ 10. The report submitted to the congress on the part of Russia was
drawn up by Count Sollohub, president of the imperial commission re-
cently appointed to devise a new penitentiary system for the Russian
Empire. The count explains, in his introductory remarks, that a de-
tailed description of the system now in operation in Russia is impossi-
ble, and, if possible, could not give an exact idea of things, since the
Ijenitentiary ([uestion in his country is at this moment passing through
a transitional i)liase, a radical reform being proposed ami certain ex-
periments ha\ ing been already commencetl. Russia is thus between
two systems, one acknowledged to be unsatisfactory and the other but
Just dawning, with its methods and measures yet undeveloped. From
a scientific; [toiiit of view, such a transitional pliase njiglit be interest-
ing, but it could Jiot give pre<'jse statements either as to what exists
now or what is to exist hercalter. Tiiese considerations caused hesita-
tion in resi)ect to the preparation of any report to be handed in to the
congnusH, but it was finally concluded to prepare and submit a rei)ort,
under the reserve that it is to be regarded, not as the exposition of a
systi'in, but rather as a short sketcli of the traditions of the country.
Tiie existing laws of Russia relating to the arrested and the sentenced
are divided into two parts, the fiist referring to the impiisoncd, the
second to the transported. The following is the present classification
of prisons : 1. I'risonspidpeily so called, (r>.s7/vYy.s',) established in all the
towns of the empire. ()ri;;inally tln'y were meicly places of sale-keep-
ing, tlie actual punishment being eitlwr Ixxlily inllictions or deportation
to the lajlliesl limits td the empire, with a treatment of gieater or less
PRISON SYSTEMS NORWAY RUSSIA S^VITZERLAND. 21
severity. More recently they have been lised for ])nnis]iment in cases
where the iinprisonuient does not exceed a year and fonr months. 2.
Prisons lor arrest. This must not be confounded with preliininary
arrest, where the detention is merely that of safe custody. It is a true
punishment, whi(;h is inflicted by justices of the pea(;e for slight offenses
and cannot exceed three months. 3. Houses of amendment and labor,
established by the Empress Catherine, probably under the influence of
Howard, to whom Eussia owes her first notions of the humane treat-
ment of prisoners. 4. Prisons for industrial sections or companies.
These companies, sentenced to labor on public works, formerly under
the jurisdiction of the minister of ways and communications, have lately
passed into that of the minister of the interior. Sentences to this class
of i)risons cannot now exceed four years, though formerly they might
be extended to twelve.
The system of associated imprisonment in rooms still exists in Russia,
with some exceptions 5 for example, in the o.S'/ro/ys of the first class there
are separate cells.
The result of imprisonment in common by day and night, and also of
deportation, has been found lamentable. It has created in Eussia, a
class of vagrants and wortliless characters {proletaires) not in harmony
either with the fertility of the soil or the communal constitution of the
country. The system individually preferred by the writer of the report
is the following: 1, that of civil imprisonment for the accused awaiting
trial; 2, that of cellular imprisonment for the convicted undergoing
short sentences, with a reduction of two-thirds of the punishment as
compared with the duration of collective imprisonment; 3, for houses
of correction and convict prisons, that of separation by night in small
cells open at the top, arranged in large common dormitories, well ven-
tilated, well lighted, and under constant supervision, with labor in
common workshops. The report opposes cellular imprisonment for long-
periods, on the ground that it must either render the prisoner torpid, or
produce in him such a constant feeling of restraint as will necessarily
paralyze the play and development of his individual will, sole means of
bis regeneration.
Classification of the prisoners is rigidly required by the Enssian
legislation, but the bad condition of many of the prison edifices, and
especially the lack of space, restricts it to the separation of the sexes
and of persons arrested from those who are undergoing their punish-
ment.
The prisons derive their support mainly from the treasury of the
state. The earnings of the prisoners have thus far been inconsiderable,
especially when considered in comparison with the vast ijopulatiou and
the immense productive power of the empire.
The system^f pensions is uniform for all public functionaries. What
that system is is not stated.
§ 11. The prisons of Switzerland may be divided into four groups :
1, those of five cantons are administered on a kind of patriarchal sys-
tem, (whatever that may mean,) by sisters of charity ; 2, those of three
other cantons are administered on a different system, but leaving much
to be desired in the way of imi^rovements ; 3, nine cantons have prisons
of medium excellence, some of which are advancing toward the first
rank; 4, four cantons, Argovie, Baleville, Neufehatel, and Tessin, have
penitentiaries of a higher grade of excellence, into which has been in-
troduced, in different degrees and under various modifications, the pro-
gres'sive Crofton system.
The system of congregate imprisonment predominates ; but etfort is
22 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
made to introduce cellular separation, especially at ni^ht. There is a
general agreement that the system of association is favorable to indus-
trial labor, and not unfavorable to disci i)line, but that, when extended
to the dormitories as well as to the workshops, it is obstructive to the
moral education of the prisoners.
Penitetitiary training, it is held in Switzerland, imperatively requires
cellular separation, at least in the initial stage; and it is on this sole con-
dition that the prisoners can effectively enter into communion with
themselves, a process which would be impeded by the contact and influ-
ence of some, at least, of their fellow-prisoners.
After the cellular stage, it is considered expedient to allow those
prisoners to work together who furnish ground of hoi^e that a moral
reformation has been, or may be, accomplished in them. It is under
these conditions that associated labor is found in recently-constructed
penitentiaries.
The public opinion of Switzerland shows itself more and more favora-
ble to the progressive Croftou penitentiary system, with conditional and
revocable liberation. The exclusively cellular system should be reserved
(so it is thought) for houses of preliminary detention, and for them it
should be the only system in use.
A methodical classification of prisoners exists only in the more re-
cently constructed prisons, which are conducted, as far as circumstances
permit, on the general principles of the Crofton system. There are,
liowever, no intermediate prisons in Switzerland, and, consequently,
wherever the Crofton system has been introduced, its application is
carried out in one and the same establishment. The financial resources
of no single canton would permit the realization of such a system, wiiich
could be applied only by a uniou of funds of several cantons directed to
that end. Besides which, public opinion, more or less imbued with the
old ideas of intimidation and vengeance, is not yet ripe for such a
change.
Tiie treasury of each canton covers the deficit resulting from the dif-
ference between the total expenditure and the special receii)ts of its
jirisons, which receipts are composed of the i)roceeds of the prisoners'
labor and moneys paid by cantons that place their convicts in tlie peni-
tentiaries of other cantons of the confederation. In several of the can-
tons, where the ])risons are best organized and industrial labor best
managed, the in<lustries yield an income ai)])roaching, ami in one or
two instances covering, the current expenses of the establishments, not
including, however, the salaries of officers, the cost of repairs, or the
yccAilinin paid to the prisoners.
Pensions are granted only in exceptional cases to pul)li(; functionaries,
■when they become incajjacitated ibr further service. This rule applies
to prison-officers, as to all others.
§ 12. Tln'iearein Sweden: l,cellulaT i)enitentiary prisons in each prov-
ince; 2, central prisonson the associated system — some for women, others
foi' men ; .'{, houses of arrest in certain small (owns and districts.
Tile cellnhir jnisons are used for 1h<' accused during tlu» i)reliminary
proceedings, for prisoners sentenced to hard labor for two years and
under, for jirisoners sentenced only to I'eebision, and for tliose who,
not having tlie means to pay the fines im]»osed on them, an>. recpiired to
reuih-r an e(|ui\'alent in tin', foi'm of imprisoinnent on bread and water.
Some jM-isons on tlie associatcMl |)lan are used for jxMSons sentenced to
hard lal)or for life, and oMiers for those sentenced to hai'd labor for ai
term exeeeding twoyeais.
The results of cellular im[)risoument for those awaiting trial and for
PRISON SYSTEMS SWEDEN UNITED STATES. 23
sentenced j)risoDers released at furthest after two years' imprisonment
have been favorable. Congregate-prisons, siicli as they still exist in
Sweden, having dormitories in common for forty to one hundred and
thirty prisoners each, are regarded, iu spite of the strictest supervision,
as nurseries of vice and crime. In those associated prisons where a
separation takes place at night, and in which the prisoners work in small
groups in common workshops by day, the results are found to be favorable.
The official report on the prisons of Sweden was drawn up and is
signed by Mr. Almquist, director general of prisons for that kingdom,
who says: "Of all known penitentiary systems, it appears to me that
the most excellent is the Orofton or progressive system, adopted in
Ireland, with its special stages, through which the prisoners are required
to pass."
No classification of prisoners exists, beyond that of separating the
sexes, and, as far as possible, young prisoners from the older and more
hardened ones, in the common dormitories of the associated prisons.
Prisoners not yet sentenced and those sentenced simply to recluswn
are not compelled to work. They spend their time as they like, work-
ing, reading, &c. They may procure better food and more comforts than
the prison sup[)lies, provided they do not thereby interfere with the
order and security of the prison. Prisoners sentenced to hard labor
must do the work set them, and are restricted rigidly to the prison fare.
On attaining' the age of fifty five, prisou-ofticers have the right to
retire from the service on a pension of two-thirds of their salary ; those
who serve till they are sixty-five generally receive from the Parliament
a pension equal to their whole salary.
§ 13. The North American Republic is composed of nearly forty States
with local self government, and a dozen dependencies hot yet elevated
to the rank of States. These fifty jurisdictions are, in matters of crime
and punishment, independent of each other, and very little controlled by
the National Government. They vary in antiquity from Virginia, New
York, and Massachusetts, which have been inhalnted by the Indo-Euro-
pean races for more than two centuries. and ai half, to the new Territories
of Dakota and Montana, which ten years ago were occupied only by
roving savage tribes ; and, consequently, almost ever^^ variety of social
condition prevails in this vast area, larger than half of Europe and more
populous at this moment than any European nation except Russia.
As a nation, the United States have existed for nearly a century, their
sei)aration from the British Empire being coeval with the first improve-
ment of prisons, resulting from the labors of John Howard. Conse-
quently, the prison system of America, like all the modern systems,
dates no further back than 1784, when the old Walnut Street prison of
Philadelphia was built, and the first organized effort to improve prison
discipline in the United States was made by the Pennsylvania Society
for alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, of which Dr. Franklin was
one of the founders, in 1787. The National Government, as now estab-
lished by the Federal Constitution of 1787, dates from the same period ;
but it has never much concerned itself as a Government with the prison
system of the country, its first step iu that direction being the appoint-
ment of the undersigned in 1871, as a commissioner to the International
Prison Congress of London. Whatever hafe beeu done, therefore, has
been the work of the separate States of the Union, and almost wholly
within the present century. The oldest penitentiary now iu use is [)rob-
ably that of Massachusetts, at Charlestown, uear Boston, which was
begun iu 1800 and first received convicts in 1805. Among the county-
jails there are jprobably a few older than this, but the greater number,
24 INTERXATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
both of state and county prisons, have been built since the begiiiniug
of the world-wide controversy between the advocates of the celiuhir or
Penusylvauia system and tiie silent or Auburn systeia, now generally
known as the separate and the congregate systems of prison management.
This controversy, opened in America about half a ceutury ago, took a
concrete and practical form with the opening of the Auburn and Sing-
Sing penitentiaries in the State of New York, built on the congregate
l)lan, with separation at night in single cells, and the two penitentiaries
of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia and at Pittsburgh, built on the separate
plan, with cellular imprisonment day and night for each convict. New
Jersey and Rhode Island, in imitation of the eastern and western peni-
tentiaries of Pennsylvania, introduced the cellular system into their
state-prisons, respectively; but those States abandoned the system
years ago, and more recently it has been given up at the western peni-
tentiary of Pittsburgh. So the result of the controversy in the United
States is that cellnlarisin exists only at the Cheriy Hill prison, or east-
ern penitentiary, in Philadelphia; In some of the county-jails of Penn-
sylvania ; in the Suflblk County jail in Boston ; and possibly a few other
prisons of the same class. The proportion of prisoners confined on the
separate plan in the whole United States is about one to thirty, or in the
neighborhood of 3 per cent. It is therefore evident that the system of
association, as opposed to that of cellularism, is the one which prevails
in the United States. Nevertheless, it is believed that the enlightened
friends of prison reform in this country very generally prefer the system
of complete separation for all prisons of preliminary detention, and,
moreover, that they w^ould prefer thfe restriction of all detention prisons
to the purpose of safe-keeping alone, while minor oftenses, they hold,
might better receive their punishment in district-prisons, forming a
middle class of penitentiaries between the detention-prison and the state-
prison, in which reformatory principles and processes might be more
ho])i'rully ai)plied than they are now or ever can be in the county-jails.
Tilt' broad distinction of American ])risons is that stated above, viz,
into state-prisons and county-jails. States are the Federal unit of the
American republic, and ot these there are thirty-seven ; but the units
of each State are the counties, numbering, in the whole country, about
2,100. In each of these counties there is, or nmy be, a county-prison,
and in some of them there are two, three, or four. In the thirty-seven
States there are now thirty-nine state-prisons and two state work-
liouses; the latter in Massachusetts and Phode Island. In two States,
Floiida and Delaware, there are as yet no state-i)risons; in Pennsyl-
vania ai'd Indiana there are two each, and in New York there are three.
IN'ckoning about forty state-prisons in all, the average number of their
inmates, Ibi- tlu? last year or two, has been about 1(!,(!(>0; but for the
last y<'a)' the number has been increasing. Of this average number,
th(! Stat(! of New York has I'urnished about 2,700 in its three great
jjrisons; Illinois, 1,.'!()0 in its one prison; Ohio, a little moi-e than 1,000;
J'ennsylvania, a little less than 1,000; JMassaehusetts, (including the
workhouse convicts,) nearly t)00; Califoiiiia, almost 800; and Missouri
nearly 000 ; so that tliese seven Stat(!S supi)ly about one-half the convicts
of the higiier grades of crime. The same is true ot the inmates of the
(;ity, county, and district *i)risons of all grades, who, in these seven
Stafi'S, average now probably nearly 10,000, out of a total in the whole
country of perhaps 22,000, These numbers are nothing nu)re than
careful «'stimat('s, wliile the average in the state-prisons is <piite exactly
(romputcd, the fact l)eing that nobody knows ]))'ecisely tlie number of
the county-jails in the United Stales, jnuch less the average of their
PRISON SYSTEMS ENGLAND IRELAND. 25
inmates; nor is tlie number of the town and city prisons known, nor
the average of their inmates. The district-prisons— intermediate be-
tween the state and connty prisons— are few in number, and are very
well known. These four classes — municipal, (town and city,) county
district, and state-prisons — include all places of confinement in the
United States, except for juvenile offenders.
In all these prisons, of all classes, when the last census was taken,
(June 1, 1870,) the number reported in confinement was 32,208, but this
is known to have been too small. The true number, even at that season
of the year — the summer — when the fewest persons are in prison, was
not less than 35,000, and iu the winter of the same year it no doubt
rose to more than 40,000, with an average number through the year of
at least 38,000. If we suppose the same to be the average number in
confinement during 1871, and 16,000 to be the average number of state-
prison convicts, (neither being far from the true number,) it is probable
that 8,000 of the remaining 22,000, and perhaps even half that number,
(which would be 11,000,) are held iu jail awaiting trial or sentence,
while from 11,000 to 14,000 are under sentence in the minor prisons of
counties and districts, for offenses of less criminality than are punished
iu the state-prisons. As for the sex of these prisoners, if we confine
ourselves to general statements, we shall be within bounds in saying
that not more than one in six of the 38,000 persons mentioned as the
average prison-populatiou of the whole United States are women.
The proportion is much less than this iu prisons of the highest grades ;
that is to say, the state-prisons.
§ 14. Prison management has been made a subject of study and dis-
cussion in England for more than a century. An interesting and able
review of the progress of things in this department of the public serv-
ice is given by Major Du Cane, chairman of the directors of convict-
prisons, iu the report which, by directiou of the British government, he
submitted to the penitentiary congress. It would occupy too much
space to give even the most condensed summary of this history, and
the undersigned limits himself, therefore, as in the case of other
countries, to a brief exposition of the actual penitentiary system of
England as applied in the convict or state prisons, and set forth in the
paper of Major Du Cane.
The Euglish convict-system is devised witli a view to combine the
principle of deterrence with that of refornnition. While the importance
of the latter of these principles is admitted, the former is held to be
l)aramouut, because punishment (such is the theory) is designed primarily
to prevent crime by the warning thereby held up to those who might,
but for such deterrent influence, fall into it.
The sentence to penal servitude in England is divided into three prin-
cipal stages. The first stage is passed at Pentonville or Millbauk, and
lasts nine mouths in all cases. During that period the prisoner passes
his whole tinu^, except the periods allotted to prayers and exercise, alone
iu his cell, working at some employment of an industrial or remuner-
ative character. The second stage is passed iu a prison in which he
sleeps and has his meals in a separate cell, but works in associatiou un-
der a close supervision. The third period is that during which he is
conditionally released from prison, but is kept under the supervision of
the police, and made liable for any infraction of the conditions of his
release, the consequence of which is that he is to be returned to prison,
there to fulfill the whole of the remitted portion of his sentence. A stage
intermediate between the second and the conditional release is applied
to women, who may be sent to " refuges" for six mouths before their re-
26 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
lease on license. The refuges are establisliments managed by privafe
persons who interest tlieiuselves in preparing the women for discharge
and in procuring suitable situations for them.
Cellular seclusion for long periods has been found in England to liave
an enfeebling effect upon the prisouer. "When the system was first es-
tablished, the duration of the time of separation was fixed at eighteen
months ; but snch resnlts followed that, after various experiments, the
present period of nine months has been fixed upon as the longest to
which prisoners can, with advantage, be subjected to this stage of the
discipline. A stage of separate imprisonment is held in England to be
indispensable to the best effects of convict treatment. It is not only in
itself a severe penal discipline, but the mind of the convict is thereby
thrown in upon itself; he becomes accessible to lessons of admonition
and warning 5 religious influences act upon him with greater foi-ce, aiul
he is put into a condition in which he is likely to feel sorrow for the
past and to welcome the words of those who show him how to avoid
evil in the time to come.
There are eleven convict-prisons in England, eight of which are ex-
clusively for males, two exclusively for females, and one mixed. The
aggregate capacity of these prisons is : males, 8,7(34 ; females, 1,239 ;
total, lo,003, exclusive of infirmary and punishment cells. The average
except for number of prisoners is 7,833, of whom 1,100 are women.
Two of the convict-prisons, and parts of two others, are on the sepa-
rate plan, but separate cells are provided for all prisoners at night,
invalids of certain classes and some of the women.
In all but two of the convict-prisons — Pentonville and Millbank — the
prisoners work in assotaation.
The pensions granted to retiring prison-officers are regulated upon
the same general principles as those accorded to other civil ofifi(3ers.
The whole number of borough and county jails in England is one
hundred and twenty-two, of which thirty-five belong to the first class
and eighty-seven to the second. There is no difference between these
two classes of prisons, except that the county-prisons are governed by
the county-magistriites, and the borough-prisons by the borough-mag-
istrates. The aggregate capacity of both classes is 27,109. Tlie aver-
ago- period of imprisonment is -less than one month. Three-fouiths of
the prisoners have terms under a month and tlie remaining one-fourth
under six months. Less than one in a thousand have an imprisonment
exceeding the last-named period.
As a rule all jnisoners are se[)arated at night. In many prisons they
work to a certain extent in association, but under such supervision as
th(5 governors consider sufficient to prevent comnuinication.
§ If). The world — that is, the part of it interested in i)enitentiary
questions — may almost be said to know the Irish convict-prison system
by heart.*
This system consists of three, or, including the period of provisional
liberation, four, stag(!S.
'I'he. liist stage is that of celliilni' imi»iis(>nment. lis duration varies
from i'ight to niiii'. months, ueeording to the eonduet of the i)risoner.
Diwing this (list stage the imprisonment has a elnuiu^ter intensely penal.
The work refpiired is lude and uninteresting, and the rations furnished
are moderate in (plant ity an<l coarse in (pialit-y. The aim of this rigor
is to cause the prisoner to enter, as it were, into himself, and to produce
"TIiIh Iia.s licrcfofm-c, Ih-'cii coMinioiily known jis I lie Irisli inistMi system, Itiih is now
(Miniin;; lo 1)c (lcsi;^ii!itn(l as Mh' Croi'dtn KyHtcin, in conqjiiniont to tin; (iiiiiucnt man wiio
devised aiitl lirst ]iiil it, in iiiiicticc. — JO. C W.
PRISON ADMINISTRATION AUSTRIA BELGIUM DENMARK. 2 7
upon liis soul a lasting: imprecision. Tlie prisoner, however, (lnrin,i>' this
initial sta^e, is made tlioroui^bly acquainted with the whole system and
with all the advantages that will accrue to him in his progress toward
liberty, if he takes kindly to it and is uuiformerly well-behaved and
attentive to all his duties.
The second stage is passed in a congregate prison, with separation at
night and associated labor during the day. The prisoner is here sub-
jected to a much milder treatment, and his condition is improved more or
less rapidly according to his conduct. He receives each month a certain
number of marks which determine his advance from one class to another,
for the essential principle of this second stage is that of a progressive
classitication, based on good conduct and merit. There are four classes.
Each class marks a change in the prisoner's situation and a mitigation
of his punishment. On reaching the fourth class he no longer wears
the prison-garb ; he is employed on special works ; he enjoys many
privileges; and lie may almost be said to approach the state of liberty.
It is this second stage which really characterizes the system. It is so ar-
ranged and adjusted as to becoinean effective trial of the prisoner. If he
is steadfast in his good resolutions and good conduct, he passes on froui
class to class ; if, on the contrary, he is ill-disposed and disobedient, he
is degraded to an inferior class, even to the lowest, if his conduct be such
as to merit such severity. The convict who has successfully passed
through this series of trials is adjudged to be prepared for a state of
comparative freedom, and he is consequently admitted into the* inter-
mediate prison.
This constitutes the third stage in the Crofton system. Here the im-
prisonment is little more than moral. The prisoner wears the dress of a
freenuin, works on a large farm with his fellows, attends the village church,
and is subjected to little more restraint of any kind than an ordinary' free
laborer. This is, in effect, a probationary stage, and is designed to test
the genuineness of his reformation. It is, for him, so to speak, the ap-
prenticeship and prelude of liberty. If he hold out to the end in a
good course of conduct, he receives a ticket of license and becomes
conditionally free. The duration of his imprisonment may thus be
shortened to the extent of a fourth part. But if, on the other .hand, his
conduct is evil, he is remanded to the associated, or even to the cellular
l^rison, to work his way up again by the same painful and painstaking
process as before.
The fourth stage of the Crofton system is that of conditional or pre-
iminary liberation, which need not be particularly described. It will
thus be seen that Sir Walter Crofton has devised a complete system of
peiuil treatment; one which has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and
"which is, at one and the same time, penal and reformatory.
CHAPTER II.
PRISON ADMINISTRATION.
§ 1. All the prisons of Austria are under the jurisdiction of the min-
istry of justice, which shares its i)0wers of administration with two other
classes of authority — local and intermediate. All matters of minor im-
portance, which are naturally the most numerous, are attended to by
the local authorities, and those of a graver character by the intermedi-
ate authorities. It is only questions of the highest im[)ortance that are
submitted to the decision of the ministr3" of justice. The ministry of
28 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
justice, as the central autliority over all prisons, is by law empowered
to a[)poiut an official, from its own office, as the representative of the
minister, and to entrust him with the supervision and guidance of all
jtrisons. But, since 1867, an inspector-general of prisons has been ap-
pointed.
The ministry of justice appoints the directors of male prisons, the in-
spectors of female prisons, the chaplains, the book-keepers, and the
financial and medical officers. The subordinate officers are named, in
certain prisons, by the local, and in others by the intermediate author-
ities. The tenure of office is, as with all the servants of the state, with-
out limit, tliat is, during good behavior.
§ 2. In Belgium, as in Austria, the ministry of justice has all pris-
ons under its jurisdiction. The penitentiary of Louvain has a commis-
sion charged with the inspection and supervision of that establishment.
There are also commissions charged with the general supervision of the
other prisons, and constituting administrative boards, invested with the
right of investigating and redressing abuses, of proposing and introduc-
ing reforms to tlie advantage of the service, of granting to the employes
leave of absence for five days, and of imposing upon them certain dis-
ciplinary punishments. The a|)pointnient of the directors and assist-
ant directors is by royal decree. The other functionaries and employes
of the prisons are named by the minister of justice. Tliere is no limit to
the teyure of office ; it belotigs to the government to judge whether the
functionary onglit to be retained or dismissed.
§ 3. No infV)rmation is given in the report from Denmark concern-
ing the prison-administration of that country, except what is contained
in the single brief statement that " a director of prisons has tlie control
of all the prisons." It is to be presumed that there are some limitations
to his powers; but what they are, the undersigned is unable to state.
§ 4. The prisons of France, except those of Paris, depend upon a
central power, which is rei)resented by the minister of the interior, and,
under him, by the director of the administration of prisons.
The central power exercises its control by means of general inspec-
tions, made by special functionaries — namely, inspectors-general of
l)risons. B(\si(les tliis direct and most imj)()rtant control, there is a local
control of the prefects for all the prisons ami penitentiary establish-
nuAiits; of th(^, mayors and commissions of supervision for the houses of
arrest, of justice, and of correction; and, liually, of thecouneil of sui)er-
vision foi' the colonies of correctional education of juvenile delinquents.
The director of the administrDtiou of prisons is chargiMl with admin-
istering, under tlui aut]u)rity of the minister of the interior, th(^ ])ris()ns
and penitentiary establishments of every class in France. Under him,
and as a deliberative consultative board, is found thecouneil of insi)ect-
ors-general of prisons, whi(;h Is calked ni)on, in the interval of their
tours of inspection, to give advi(;e on the more important questions of
the service. Th(5 instructions and regidations (Muanating from the (!en-
tral administration are addressed, through the intervention of the pre-
feets, who r(q>re.sent the (\\(!cutive power in the departments, to the di-
jcetors of the, diffiTent establishments. At tlu» hea<l of each central
]>rison is found a director. Jlis action extends to all parts of the serv-
ice. ITe is Hpcfjially charged with (U)iiductingth(M',on<'Sj)ondenee with
the minister of the interior, to whom he addresses his reports on the
financial, industrial, and <lisciplinai-y condition of the establishnuMit,
through the agency of tln^ prefects, except in urgent ami (vxtra ordinary
ca cs. I)ire(!tors of the, hoirs(^s of arr<^st, of justice^, and of (;ori(M;tion
ai( chained with the administration of those establislnnents in one or
nil re (lc|>a! t ments. In liie prisons situated at the [)la(;e of their resi-
PRISON ADMINISTEATION FRANX'E BADEN BAA^AKIA. 29
(lence their action makes itself felt directly, like that of tlie director of
a ceutral prison, on all parts of tlie service, and in the other prisons
indirectly tlirongli the agency of the principal keepers, who receive
their instructions and are required to address to them frequent reports.
An important part of their functions has reference to the economical
administration of the prisons, to purchases, to the verification of ex-
penses, to the control of the accounts, cash, and material; in short, to
the preparation of the various financial documents which they send to
the central administration. The principal keepers are the agents charged
with the care and supervision of the houses of arrest, of justice, and of
correction.
In the central prisons and other similar establishments the function-
aries, employes, and agents, to whichever department of the service
they may be attached, are named by the minister of the interior.
A^ regards the houses of arrest, of justice, and of correction, the func-
tionaries and em[)loyes proposed for the administration are named b}'
the minister, and the emi)loyes of the other services are named by the
prefects, as also the agents of supervision other than the chief keepers.
Still, these appointments do not become definitive till they have received
the ministerial approval.
By the terms of the law of the 5th August, 1850, relative to the edu-
cation of juvenile delinquents, every private penitentiary colony is gov-
erned by a responsible director, approved by the minister of the interior.
The employes placed under the orders of the director must be, in like
manner, ap[)roved by the prefect.
In the department of the Seine, where the prisons are managed, in
many of their relations, under authority of special provisions, the direct-
ors are named by the minister of the interior, on presentation by the
prefect of police; the other employes are named by the prefect. In
etfect, it is the prefect of police who, in Paris, administers the iJeniteu-
tiary establishments.
The inspectors-general of prisons and penitentiary establishments are
named by the minister of the interior.
The duration of the functions of the different employes composing the
personnel of the penitentiary service is not limited by any determinate
time. The agents who have not been gravely derelict in the exercise of
their functions continue in place till they have reached the age at least
of sixty and have been in service thirty years.
§5. The several states of the German Empire represented in the con-
gress report as follows:
(1) All the prisons of the Grand Duchy of Baden are under the control
of the minister of justice and foreign affairs, who exercises over them
complete administrative power. There is, however, acouncil of inspection
fur all the larger penitentiary establishments. This council decides on
the complaints of prisoners and the admissibility of administrative pro-
ceedings against the inferior prison officers when such proceedings are
beyond the cognizance of tlie director, confirms the contracts entered
into by the administration for the supplies of the prison, and gives the
necessary order, if desirable in any case, to substitute collective for soli-
tary imprisonment. The su[>eiior officers are ai)pointed by the grand
duke, the inferior olBcers by the minister of justice; their ai)pointment
is for life.
(2) All the prisons of Bavaria are under the jurisdiction of the min-
istry of justice. The direction and inspection of prisons where iinj)ris-
onment of more than three months is undergone belongs exclusively to
this ministry, without the action of any intermediate authorities; the
30 INTERNATIONAL FENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
inspectiou of the other prisons is by local officers. For the cellular
prison at Xiirnberg, there exists a special council of inspection, consist-
ing- of state officials, judges, district-attorneys, and prison-officials, to-
gether with private persons belonging to Niiruberg. The directors and
administrators are appointed by the King; the chaplains, doctors, teach-
ers, stewards, and technical instructors by the ministry of justice; the
keepers and clerks by the director of each prison. The directors and
administrators only are.appointed for life, but the other officers also look
upon the service as one in which their life is to be spent. As a rule,
officials quit the prison service either in the beginning, when their incli-
nations are against this work, or when it becomes apparent that they
have not the necessary capacity, or on their being appointed to higher
posts.
(3) In Prussia there is no central authority having control of all the
different classes of prisons. The local prisons, designed exclusivel,y for
preliminary detention and for punishments of short duration, are under
the control of the minister of justice, while the great penitentiary estab-
lishments belong to the jurisdiction of the minister of the interior, who
decides upon the general i)rinciples which are to regulate the economic
administration of each prison and the treatment of the prisoners under
the relations of discipline, religious and scholastic instruction, labor,
clothing, and food. He causes inspections to be regularly nurde of the
several peuitentiary establishments by the high functionary attached to
his ministry, who is speciall}' charged with the oversight of prisons; and
he decides, in the last resort, on all matters of complaint presented to
him either by prisoners or by employes.
All other matters appertaining to the control and administration of
the })risons are attended to by the administrative authorities of the
jjrovinces. To these especially belong the i^ermanent control to be exer-
cised over the emploj-uieut of the moneys assigned to each establish-
ment; over the details of the economic and industrial administration;
over the treatment of the prisoners, wiiether in point of discipline or in
other respects; and over the conduct and fidelity of the employes of the
prison. In this view, every establishment is inspected by memlxTs of
the provincial authorities delegated to that duty, at intervals not exceed-
ing the la))se of some months.
The minister of the interior apppoints the directors and su])erior offi-
cers of tlu- ])risons ; the subaltern officers are a|)pointed by the ])rovin-
cial authorities. The superior officers, after a certain period of trial,
are appointed for life-. The subalterns are liable to dismissal; yet,
after some years of blameless' conduct, the-y also are appointed for life.
(4) 'JMiere exists in Saxony no one central authority for the admin-
istialion of tiie penilentiaiy system.
Th<' administrative authority rests, except in prisons belonging to
courts of justice and police, in the hands of tlie ministry of the interior.
The ministry of justice takes cognizance, by commissioners, of the
manner in wliich the sentciuM^ is carried out, and also (U)ntrols the
domestic aiiaiigements. The jtrisons i»elongiiig to courts of justi<!e, in
which im|»risonment not ex<'ee<iing four months can be undei-gon<', are
sujx'rinlended by the ministry of justice, which has issued I'cmarUable
orders i-elating to t lie s])iritual care and (he industrial occn]>ation of the
l)risoneis. Neilher the, text nor the purport, however, of these orders
is given in tlie rejiort submitted to the congress.
(r>) The economic and corri'ciiona! adininistration of all the ])risons
of \\'iirteml)erg is controlled l)y a (;entral authority, which also ex-
ercises su]ter\ ision over district-priKons for preliminary detention and
PRISON ADMINISTRATION PRUSSIA SAXONY, ETC. 61
minor puiilsliments. The central authority is subordinate to the minis-
ter of justice. It is composed of members of the departments of justice,
of the interior, and of finance ; it has likewise atta(;hed to it some
skilled ecclesiastical members, a doctor, an architect, ami a mercliant.
The directors and the cliief officers of the administration are appointed
by the King', on the nomination of the minister of justice, who first con-
sults the commissioners for i)risons. These api)ointments are generally
tor life. The subordinate ofticers are appointed by the commissioners
for prisons.
§ 6. The whole of the detention and penitentiary administration of the
prisons of Italy, whether as regards the buildings, regulations, officers,
discipline, or general supervision, is superintended by one central
authority, which forms the general prison board and depends on the
ministr}' of the interior. This board is composed of the director-general,
four inspectors, and three departments, one of which is intrusted with
the supervision of the directive, sanitary, and religious ofticers and
jailors, another attends to the financial administration ; and the third
regulates whatever refers to the construction of the buildings and the
wants of the prisoners. Besides this, there is an office of statistics, a
technical officer of engineers, and a copying-office, each of these having
special employes and special work.
All these branches of prison administration are concentrated in the
general director, who, in his turn, regulates the service, seconded by
the consultative vote of a' council of administration and discipline, com-
posed of at least two central inspectors, and the director of that de-
l)artment to which is intrusted the special subject under discussion.
Nor does it seem possible otherwise to direct an administration so vast,
and one requiring, as an indispensable rule, the most i)erfect unison in
thought and regulation, to carry into effect the principle that "every
citizen is equal in the eyes of the law."
The directors and officers of the prisons, "whether central or local, are
named by royal decree; the keepers and foremen by decree of the min-
ister of the interior, on the jjroposal of the director-general.
The tenure of office for the higher functionaries is for life; nor can
they be removed, except for causes which would render them unfit for
the service or unworthy of a place among the officers of the state. The
keepers are chosen for six years. As to the foremen, their engagements
with the penitentiary administration depend, in each case, on special
arrangements.
§ 7. There is no central power in Mexico which controls the peniten-
tiary administration of the whole country. The prisons in each munici-
pality are under the care of a commission. The prisons of each state
are subject to inspection by the governor of the state. In Mexico it-
self, (city and district,) the governor and home secretary have a power
of inspeotion.
§ 8. All the prisons in the aSTetherlands are under the supreme direc-
tion of the minister of justice, and the general inspection of the prisons
is made by an insj^ector, who has his deputy in the bureau of tlie de-
partment of justice. For the inspection of the buildings, an engineer-
architect is attached to the same department. The courts and tribunals
are also required to cause the prisons to be inspected, from time to
time, by members assigned to that duty. The reports of all these in-
spections are addressed to the minister.
The administration of the several prisons is confided to administra-
tive commissions named in each locality where a prison exists. The
members of these commissions are named by the King from among the
32 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
notables of the locality, who receive no salary. Whatever appertains
to the local administration, to the internal service, to the discipline, and
to the execution of the general and special regulations is confided to
these commissions or is done thi^jugh their agency. They are in offi-
cial relation with the minister, either directly or by the deputy of the
royal commissioner (governor) of the province, their immediate superior
and their honorary president.
The directors of the central prisons are appointed by the King, the
other officers by the minister of justice. There is no defined tenure of
office. Incumbents hold their offices until they are displaced, dismissed,
or voluntarily retire from the service.
§ 9. The department of justice is supreme in the administration of the
prisons of Norway. This department is charged with the immediate
administration of the prisons which receive prisoners sentenced to hard
labor ; while, under it, the administration of the inferior or district
prisons is confided to the prefects. The position and general functions
of prefects are not stated in the report. Every prison of the higher
grade has also its local administration, which makes the necessary ar-
rangements with regard to jiinson discipline, economy, &c. 5 always,
however, in conformity to the rules laid down by the department of
justice, or having its approval and sanction. A director-general of
prisons is wanting. The special directors and the chaplains of the
several prisons are appointed by the King ; the medical and financial
officers are named by the department of justice; the teachers receive
their appointment from the chaplains, and the other functionaries from
the directors. The members of the local nuiuaging boards of the dis-
trict, who generally receive no salary, are named by the King, being
taken from among the judicial or administrative otlicers of the district.
The subordinate officers of this class of prisons are appointed by the
prefects. Tenure of office is not for a fixed time.
§ lU. The jnisons of Russia are divided into two classes, military and
civil. The military prisons are under the jurisdiction of the ministers
of war and of the navy ; the civil prisons are attached to the ministry
of the interior. The latter are further placed under the Imperial Society
for the Guardianship of Prisons. This society was established in 1819,
and has for object the intrcjduction of a move, humane treatnuMit of
prisoners. In 1830 it was by law invested with fresh powers and [)re-
rogatives. A committee, formed by a central committee sitting at St.
PetJn-sburg under the i)residency of the minister of the interior, is
established in the capital of ea(;h province, with braiuihes in each chief
town of the several districts. Tiiese committees are com|)()sed, ex oJJU'io,
of the officers of the state and of volunteer and benevolent members,
who have a small salary and certain lionorable prerogatives. These
committees select the governors and direct the economic manage-
ment of the prisons. A considerable sum is grantetl for this- i)urpose
to the committees, who have the right of referring, in a presinibed
manner, to the minister, of tlie interior under his double office of
mini.xtcr and president. This system not only lessens the expenses of
;idminisliation, l)nt has led to considc^rable gifts and the formation of
;i special capital. It must, however, be acknowledged that such a sys-
tem of iidniiiiistration produces a cei'ta in amonnt of carc^Iessness nnd
irresponsibility in the exercise of power, and that tln^ principle of phil-
anthiopic committees and tJK'ir ]»artie.ipal ion in the manageiiu'nt of
l)risonei's retpiire important mtxlifieiitlon in linssia.
Outside of the control oftlu^ committ(M^s, there was recently estab-
lished, when municipal laws were created in Itnssia, a new mode of de-
PRIS. ADMN. MEXICO^-NETHERLANDS NORWAY, ETC. 33
tention, named arrest, not to be confounded with preliminary arrest.
The jmnishment of arrest, inflicted by justices of the peace for slight
violations of the law, cannot exceed three months. The establishment,
maintenance, and administration of these new local prisons are under
the control of the municipal institutions of each province.
The appointment of directors and of members of committees is con-
firmed by imperial decree. The other officers are appointed by the
minister of the interior. Their tenure of office is not limited.
§ 11. All the prisons of Sweden are placed under the control and ad-
ministration of a central independent authority, called the general
administration of prisons. Under this general administration, the pro-
vincial government has the direct inspection of the cellular prisons
established in each province. The general administration derives its
authority from the government, to wliich all reports are made through
the medium of the minister of justice!
The directors and officers of all the prisons of the state are named by
the general administration of prisons. They are appointed for no speci-
fied time, and generally they retain their places as long as they show
themselves competent to their work.
§ 12. The Swiss Confederatiou, composed of twenty-two cantons and
embracing twenty-five states, does not, by its own i)ower, exercise any
control over the administration of penal justice and of prisons, or over
the penitentiary rSgime. Military and political penal justice, so far as
it is called upon to punish offenses against the constitution and the fed-
eral laws, alone comes within its jurisdiction. Each canton is sovereigri.
It has its own special penal system and its own places of imprisonment.
Its prisons are thus placed under the control of the cantonal executive
authority or of the council of state.
The supervision of the prisons belongs more especially to one of the
departments of the executive power. In certain cantons the prisons
are placed, wholly or partially, under the supervision of the department
of police, in others under that of the department of justice or of the
interior, according to the stand-point from which the importance of this
public service is viewed. In the cantons in which recently-constructed
penitefitiaries are found, the whole or a part of the supervision is con-
fided to the director of justice, or to a special department, which gives
its attention not only to prisons, but also to hospitals, insane-asylums,
&c. This department associates with itself a commission of super-
vision composed of three to seven members, selected from among per-
sons experienced in questions of i^euitentiary reform, of industry, and
of commerce. In the cantons where this machinery exists, an official
regulation defines the functions of the commission of supervision. The
detention-prisons in the districts and places of detention for civil penal-
ties are supervised by the agents of the council of state — prefects, coun-
selors of prefecture, &c.
The officers and employes of the prisons are named by the council of
state. In the cantons where penitentiaries of recent construction exist,
the officers are proposed by the department of justice or of police, which
takes the advice of the commission of supervision. The foremen and
overseers are appointed by the commission of supervision, on the nomi-
nation of the director of the penitentiary.
In some cantons the officers are subjected to a re-election every three
years, in some every four years, and in others the tenure of office is
without limitation.
It may be affirmed that, as a general thing, the officers of the Swiss
penitentiaries are not exposed to the iufluence of political changes, and
H. Ex. 185^ 3 '
34 INTERNATIONAL TENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
that those whose position may have been endangered by IJae victory of
a party have been effectually shielded by a public opinion which appre-
ciated their merits and their devotion.
§ 13. The General Government of the United States, as was observed in
the preceding chapter, does not concern itself with inisous. It has not
a solitary jail or penitentiary under its jurisdiction, but imprisons the
few criminals convicted under its laws and by its own courts iu the
States where the conviction takes place. Prison-administration, there-
fore, is a thing relegated to the governments of the several States. But
even in the individual States there is no central authority governing
all the prisons, although the last ten years have developed a tendency
to establish such a central bureau in several of the States. Generally,
the bureau is charged with the inspection of prisons only, and has no
power to reguhite their management or appoint their officers. Such
bureaus exist, under the name of boards of public charities, in Penn-
sylvania, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri; and similar
boards in Massachusetts, Ehode Island, and North Carolina take some
part in j)rison inspection, or management, or both. In New York the
State board of charities is expressly excluded from any direction or
even inspection of the prisons, and the three great prisons of that State
are placed under the control of another board, known as the inspectors
of State prisons, while a private societj', with public duties, the New
York Prison Association, of which the undersigned was for many years
the secretary, is allowed, and indeed required, to inspect all the prisons
of the State and the counties. Nothing that can properly be called
"central rtWif/ior/if?/" over all the jn'isons of a State is known to exist
anywhere in the Union ; but wherever there is the nearest approach to
this, the results are the most satisfactory. Without it, there is, at best,
a great lack of method and of the highest order of prison discipline; and
often gross abuses i)revail in many of the local prisons. These have
been revealed, to some extent, in official reports within the past five
years, notably in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michig-an, Illinois,
and Wisconsin ; and were a searching investigation to be made in other
States, even those most noted for the excellence of their prison admin-
istration, no doubt such would be revealed iu them too. As a riWe, each
city and couuty manages its own prisons; and where a city or county has
several i)risons, these are very likely to be under distinct officers or
boards of management, which have little acquaintance with each other
and little knowledge of the general system of prisons in the State.
Hence, if wclindiu'any State a prison exceptionally ^^ell managed, like
the Albany penitentiary, under the nuinageinent of General Pilsbury, and
the Detioit house of correction, under that of Mr. Prockway, it by no
iiicaiis follows that the other i)risons will be good ; and it may happen
that a spirit of envy or jealousy will pievent the managers of one prison
from ado]»tiiig the imi)nn'ed system which has been introduced into
another. The chief (lefects of this disoiganized condition of ]>risou
nianagnncnt spring, however, from a mutual ignorance of the condition
and working of prisons that should co-oi)erate with each other ; and
one great advantage derived from the. meeting of the Cincinnati Prison
Jieforni (>ongi<'ss was a better acfpiaintance of i)rison managers with
each other, aiul a wider knowledge gained by them of the prisons of
their own and other States.
§ 14. In Great Piitain ;nid Ireland th(i prison system is far from being
a unit. In neither country is there any such tiling as a central and
supreme authority, possessing juiisdiction overall its i)risons. Por the
convict-prisons alone, there is in each a. central and controlling
PKIS. ADMN. SWITZERLAND UNITED STATES, ETC. 35
power, w'hicli sits at the lielm, and which has within its jurisdiction the
entire administration of the system. But as regards county and borough
prisons, both in the larger and smaller island, the government has little
power beyond that of inspection. Each prison has its own board of vis-
iting justices, supreme withiu its own domain, but with no bond of union
between them, and no power capable of giving unity and symmetry to
tlie whole circle and system of prisons and their administration.
CHAPTER III.
PRISON DISCIPLINE.
§ 1. The agencies employed in the prisons of Austria as a stimulus to
obedience and industry are : 1. The possibility of imperial clemency.
Prisoners cannot shorten their terms of sentence according to any fixed
rule, that principle not having, as yet, been introduced into the Aus-
trian penitentiary discipline. But, according to an ancient custom, a
number of prisoners Avho have undergone the greater part of their sen-
tences, and who have given .solid proofs of improvement, are recom-
mended periodically to the Emperor for pardon. 2. A share in their
earnings. The industrial system is not uniform in the prisons of Austria.
In some the labor of the prisoners is let to contractors ; in others, it is
utilized on account of the state. In the former class of prisons the
convicts receive one-half of the proceeds of their work after deducting
certain exjienses, not very clearly explained in the report. In the latter
class they receive a share, regulated by a fixed tariff, which amounts to
about the same as that received by ijrisoners who work on contract.
What is said above relates to prisons on the associated plan. In the
partially cellular prison of Gratz, each prisoner has his daily task.
Here the progressive system has been introduced; according to the
measure of his industry and the class to which he belongs, each prisoner
has placed to his credit daily a sum varying from two to six kreutzers,
and, at the end of the month, the value of whatever overwork he may
have done during the month.
Besides the above-mentioned rewards, the privilege is accorded to the
prisoners of spending one-half of what stands to their credit (not ex-
ceeding, however, a florin and twenty kreutzers a w eek) in the purchase of
additional comforts, as milk, coffee, wheaten bread, cold meats, wine, beer,
tobacco, &c. ; or they may spend it in support of their families or in
buying such clothes as they will need on their discharge. These arrange-
ments, the report states, have worked well.
The most frequent violation of prison-rules are disobedience, rude-
ness to ofiQcers or comrades, refusal to work, and negligence in the
performance of the assigned tasks.
The disciplinary punishments employed are : Admonition ; coarse and
unproductive work ; temporary withdrawal of privileges ; a bread-and-
water diet — not given, however, oftener than on three alternate days
in the week ; irons, (only used in extreme cases ;) hard bed, (either sack-
ing or bare boards,) but not more frequently than bread and water; im-
prisonment in a cell, with employment, and at least two visits a day
from an officer, but not exceeding a month, nor to be repeated till a full
month shall have passed ; removal to another part of the prison ; and
36 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
coufiiiemeut in a dark cell, uot exceeding three weeks, after which a
week must elapse before the i)risoiier can be returned to it.
An exact record is made of all punishments inflicted, and they are
also inserted in a memorandum-book kept by each prisoner.
§ 2. Prisoners cannot shorten their sentences in Belgium by any fixed
rule ; but this may be done by act of royal clemency in the case of pris-
oners who are thought to deserve it, on the recommendation of the ad-
ministrative boards, or boards of prison inspection. They receive a
portion of their earnings according to the following" tarifl:: Prisoners "
sentenced to hard labor receive three-tenths, those sentenced to reclu-
sion four-tenths, and those sentenced correctionally five-tenths. This
proportion cannot be increased. Other rewards, accorded to good con-
duct, to diligence, to zeal and progress in school and labor, and to mer-
itorious actions of whatever kind, are as follows: Admission to places
of trust, to domestic service, and to certain exceptional labors ; an in-
crease of the privilege of visits and of correspondence ; jiermission to
make use of tobacco, in the form of snutt' or by smoking it at proper
times; the grant of certain diversions and alleviations, sudi as the gift
of books, engravings, tools, useful objects, &c. ; propositions of clemency
and of reduction of punishment.
The most frequent violations of prison rules are, in the cellular pris-
ons, communications or attempted communications, verbal or written.
In the congregate prisons they are infractions of the rule of silence and
traffic.
The following are the disciplinary punishments in use : Privation of
work, reading, gratuities, the cantine^ visits, correspondence, and other
indulgences granted in pursuance of the reguhitions ; a diet of bread and
water ; confinement in a special cell, or in a dark cell, with or without
the bread-and-water diet ; the withdrawal of rewards which might other-
wise have been granted.
All disciplinary punishments are recorded in a special register, to-
gether with the causes for which they were inflicted. The oflenses com-
mitted and the punishments administered are also placed in the moral
account opened with each prisoner.
§ 3. The report for Denmark states that the discipline is intended to
be reformatory. For the cellular prison is established a sort of pro-
gressive system. In the associated prisons the inmates occupy sepa-
rate sleeping-cells. The convicts work in divisions separate from each
other. Ko complete progressive system has as yet been ado[)ted ; but
such a system is in contemi)lation. The punishments for breach of dis-
cipline are determined bylaw. Corporal punishments are among them.
Tlie most cilicacious means of awakening and jireserving hope are, in
the cellular prisons, the promotion to a higher class; in the associated
prisons, wages paid for labor. Conditional release does not take
l)lace.
§ 4. The principle of abbreviating the sentences of prisoners, as consti-
tuting at once a stimulus and a leward of good conduct, has not yet been
intiodnecd into the Frencli ]>('nit«'nliary disc-ipliiie. Tliis can only be
doiK^ tluoiigh the exercisi; ol" the i>ar(h)ning po\v<'r. b'ixed rules are
laid down to h(^ followed in ai)i)ii(;at ions I'or cUMnrMcy, wliich is generally
dispensed in concert with the adniinistrativ<> and judicial authorities,
and may tliereloie be i)r<'suMied to l)c done intelligently and on the
ground of merit.
In the central juisons tli(> product ol' the labor is <livi(led into tenths.
A portion of these tenths is assigned to the convi(*ts, and takes the
name of ])rcuJiinn. The quota of tenths granted to the convicts is
PRIS. DISCIPLINE AUSTRIA BELGIUM DENMARK, ETC. 37
determined by the nature of the punishments and the number of con-
victions incurred. The assij>'nment is adjusted between the three classes
thus: Correctionals, tive-teutlis; reclusionaries, four- tenths ; those sen-
tenced to hard labor, three-tenths. The part assigned to prisoners
sentenced on relapse is reduced one tenth for eacli previous convic-
tion, down to the limit of the last tenth, which is, under all circum-
stances, paid to the convict. The pecuUiim is divided by moieties
into i)ecuUum disposable and peculmm reserved. The first is at the
disposition of the convicts during their imprisonment for certain
authorized uses, and especially for the inirchase of supplementarj- pro-
visions and supplies, for the relief of their families, and for voluntary
restitutions. It also furnishes reserves for fines, punishments, breaking
prison, or damages to the prejudice of the state or the contractor. The
peculimn reserved was established in view of securing to liberated pris-
oners some resources for their first necessities on their discharge from
the penitentiary. The number of tenths allowed to convicts may be
increased on account of their good conduct and diligence. There may
be granted to them, in consideration of these qualities, even six-tenths.
Other rewards accorded to convicts are : designation for employment
as foreman of a workshop, monitor in the school, overseer of a dormitory,
and other positions of trust, such as hospital attendants, store-keepers,
secretaries, &c. ; also a place on the roll of honor.
The moral ofi'enses most frequently exhibited are theft, assaults, and
indecencies. As regards the infractions of disciplinary rules, more than
half the cases in the central prisons consist of violations of the law of
silence. In most of the penitentiary establishments, next to that just
named, the most frequent infractions are refusal to work, the secret use
of tobacco, gambling, trafiicking, and the unlawful possession of money.
Order and discipline are reported as maintained in all establishments
dependent upon the penitentiary administration, without the necessity
of a recourse to coercive measures of an excessive severity. Acts of
rebellion and violence take place to only a limited extent, thanks to the
vigorous enforcement of the rules intended to insure a strict but
equitable distribution of disciplinary justice. The punishments, so far
as the central prisons are concerned, are : Confinement in a cell, with or
without irons; the hall of discipline; dry bread for three days or more;
deprivation of the cantine or of the ordinary ration ; the reduction of the
tenths; fines; privation of correspondence and of visits; and sometimes
the loss of an honorable position, such as that of foreman, overseer of a
dormitory, monitor in the school, «&c. The convict who has incurred dis-
ciplinary punishments cannot be i)laced on the roll of honor. Corporal
punishments are expressly forbidden.
Every day (Sundays and feast-days excepted) the director of a central
prison, assisted by his assessors, holds a tribunal of disciplinary justice,
at which are required to appear prisoners reported on the previous
evening as having committed some infraction. Each case is fully heard
and fairly considered. It belongs to the director to pronounce judgment,
and his decisions are immediately inscribed in a register kept for the
purpose. Minutes are kept of the proceedings of each session. The
punishments adjudged are inscribed by the schoolmaster on the bulletin
of the moral statistics of the convict. In the houses of arrest, of justice^
and of correction, the punishments are inflicted by the director or the
chief keeper, and are inscribed on a special register, which is subject to
the inspection of the prefect and the mayor.
§ 5. The German states report : The principle of provisional libera-
tion has been adopted in the penal code of the German Empire.
o8 IXTERNATIOXAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
(1) In Baden actual imprisonment may, by good conduct, be reduced
one-fourth, provided, however, that a full yearshall have been passed
in confinement. The holder of a license may, at any time before the
expiration of his sentence, have it revoked for misconduct or an infrac-
tion of its terms, in which case the time intervening between his pro-
visional liberation and his re-arrest is wholly disregarded, and the pris-
oner is required to serve out his entire sentence as if he had not been
released at all.
For the i:>erformauce by the prisoner of the daily task required,
which is equal to the average work of a free laborer, the sum of three
kreutzers is placed to his credit. For additional work this sum may be
increased to six kreutzers. To this reward diligence and the result of
efficient work alone contribute, good conduct not being considered.
Other rewards are special gratuities, the privilege of spending a xjai't
of their pecuUum in procuring increased comforts, better prison fare,
such occupation as they like, and school prizes.
The offenses most common are forbidden communications with their
fellow-prisoners.
The disciplinary punishments in use are : Eeprimauds ; withdrawal of
privileges ; solitary confinement, with or without light ; privation of bed ;
diminution of food and drink ; aiid coercive chair, (the prisoner being
bound to a solid chair.) A full record is kept of all punishments.
(2) The same rule in regard to the shortening of i)ri$on-sentences by
good conduct holds in Bavaria as in Baden.
The proportion of their earnings allotted to prisoners varies from two
to four kreutzers a day. In this award regard is had to good behavior as
well as to industry and capability. Other rewards, given to act as an
incentive to good, are: Permission to buy or receive extra articles of
consumi)tion ; permission to receive more frequent visits and conduct a
more extensive correspondence ; formal praise or recognition ; receiv-
ing better and more lucrative work; school prizes, (presents of books;)
rewards for work, (presents of money up to four florins.)
The prison regulations oftenest violated are those which arise out
of intercourse with other prisoners, namely : Exchange of articles of
food and snuff"; disobedience and brutality, such as opposition to offi-
cials, attacking fellow-prisoners, refusal to work, swearing, noisiness,
and quarreling.
The discii)linary i)unishmeiits are : Reproof; non-payment for labor up
to four weeks; reduction of rations for a term of from eight to fourteen
days ; arrest, with or without work, to a period not exceeding four weeks;
imprisonment in a dark cell for a term not exceeding ten days; and
wearing of irons, but in such a manner as not to prevent the prisoner
from walking. Corporal ])unishment is strictly forbidden by law.
livery ]»nnisliinent is entered in a book kei)t for the i)urpose ; an ex-
tract from it is added to the dcjcuments furnished to each i)risoner.
(.">) 'J'Im; same icgulation in regard to [uovisional liberation has place
in I'rnssiii as in Baden and Bavaiia.
Piisoncrs may icccivc a i>ait of tlnir earnings, but never more than
one-sixtli. Tlur cxac^t proportion dcitcixls n[>()n their good or bad con-
duct and tlie greater or less zeal they have sliown at their work. They
may disj>ose of one-half of this share in increasing their ])ris()n com-
forts; the other lialf is giNcn to them on their release. Beyond the
HJxth of tlieii- earnings no other special rewards are granted to pris-
oners.
The most common infractions of ])rison rules in J'russia are : 1.
»Slighl olfeiises against diseij>line, as neglecting to keep silence, disorder,
PRISON DISCIPLINE GERMAN STATES. 39
untidiness, and quarreling with fellow-prisoners. These infractions,
in 1869, were 57 per cent, of the whole. 2. The violations of regu-
lations are — improper, insolent, and rebellious conduct toward the
officers. These were, in 18G9, 24 per cent. 3. Those infractions of rules
which consist in avoiding and escaping from work. These, in. 1869,
were 19 per cent.
The disciplinary punishments are : Degradation to the second class of
prisoners ; privation of the right of disposing of any part of their earn-
ings ; privation of the better treatment accorded on holidays ; solitary
imprisonment in punishment-cells, accompanied by various degrees of
rigor; and whipping, only inflicted on men, with a limitation to thirty
lashes.
An exact register of all punishments is kept.
(1) Prison discipline in Saxony has a twofold object: the satisfac-
tion of justice and the reformation of the prisoner. Above all things,
effort is made to revive and cherish hope in the heart of the criminal,
the hope of improving his condition in the prison, the hope of shorten-
ing the term of imprisonment, the hope of a complete moral amendment,
and the hope of regaining a respectable place in society. The adminis-
tration thinks that the church, the school, and Sunday's instructions
are the best means, in the hands of a sensible officer, for effecting moral
reformation. It aims at making the prisoner understand that he can
make progress neither in prison nor in civil life without radical and
real amendment. The question whether a discipline founded on rewards
or punishments is the more successful, is deemed almost superfluous, for
it depends much on the individual character of the prisoner. By an
order dated March 10, 1861, in consequence of the favorable results of
experiments made during the previous ten years, disciplinary punishments
were greatly reduced, and now consist in diminution of food, more or less
severe imprisonment, and in withdrawing the recompense for work done.
Corporal punishment with a rod or thin stick, up to thirty strokes, or
punishment on laths, (the former only used against criminals of the
lowest class of discipline,) is used under certain restrictions, and can
only be applied after mature consideration and deliberation on the part
of the officers. It is seldom used, and has, for example, not been applied
in the penitentiary of Zwickau for the last ten years. Diligence is re-
warded by a higher allowance, and good conduct i)laces the i^risoner in
a higher class of discipline, or obtains for him a place of trust. A
remission of part of the imprisonment is regarded by the i^risoners as
the highest reward. The administration makes it the termination of the
three stages of discipline. The remission of part of the sentence has
proved excellent in its results, for down to January 1, 1872, of 415 pris-
oners dismissed, only 11, or 2,65 per cent., relapsed.
(5) Probationary liberations have been introduced into Wlirtemberg
since the enactment of a jienal code for the German Empire. In cases
where a question of the full pardon of a prisoner arises, his conduct is
especially taken into consideration.
Industrious prisoners receive, for their application and good conduct,
a part of their earnings ; this part is fixed by the administration at one-
fourth ; but if their earnings exceed eight kreutzers per day, they can
receive only two kreutzers. Prisoners who are distinguished for good
conduct are encouraged by being placed in a higher class, by receiving
more agreeable and more profitable employment, by being allowed more
frequent, communication with their friends and more liberty to make
purchases out of their earnings, and by being recommended for i^ardou.
The chief disciplinary punishments are : restricted communication
40 INTEKNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
with their relatives and friends ; withdrawal or diminution of the part
of their earnings usually granted to them ; diminution of food ; isolated
imprisonment ; and imprisonment in a dark cell. In prisons for reclusion,
rons are also applied; corporal punishment is excluded. An exact
register of punishments is kept.
f G. The end aimed at in the administration of penitentiary discipline
in Italy is so to direct punishment that, without allowing it to lose its
necessary characteristic of deterrence, it shall also possess the other
equally essential requisite of reforming the delinquent. Nothing there-
fore is omitted to obtain this desirable end. While, on the one hand, it
is instilled into the mind of the prisoner that he will be enabled, by good
conduct, to ameliorate his condition ; on the other, the end aimed at is
to raise his sense of manly dignity, that he may not become a hypocrite.
In the penitentiaries those who distinguish themselves by their good
conduct enjoy special advantages, such as being intrusted with domes-
tic work, being recommended to mercy, &c.
In the bagnios there has been established a system of progressive
classification, under which prisoners, like the mercury in a thermometer,
ascend and descend according to their deserts. Each class has its dis-
tinctive badge and special privileges. Those prisoners who have distin-
guished themselves by good conduct in the penitentiaries, aiid have
worked out at least one-half their term, are removed to the agricultural
colonies of Piauosa and Gorgona.
The administration is at present occupied in the study of a plan for
sending to the island of Capraja (Tuscan Archipelago) those prisoners
who have continued in their good conduct during their sojourn in the
islands of Pianosa and Gorgona. The prisoners on reaching Capraja
will enjoy a semi-liberty within the island, without, however, being quite
free from certain disciidiuary restraints. This is the Crofton intermediate
prison.
The disciplinary system in the two classes of prisons noticed below, va-
rying according to the nature of the sentences to be worked out in them,^
differs somewhat. In the penitentiaries the jiunishments in use are :
admonitions, privation of food, solitary cells, fetters at the longest for
twenty-four hours, solitarj' confinement from one to six months ; while
in the bagnios, besides admonitions, separate cells, and privation of
food, there is also arrest, with or without fetters, the hard seat, &c.
The rewards in the penitentiaries are: the appropriation for the ben-
efit of the i^risoner of a <{uota of the profits arising from his labor; a
more generous diet ; the privilege of a less interrupted family corre-
spondence ; the right of dis})osing of a portion of the funds accruing from
his w<nk ; admission into the schools; domestic employment; and rec-
omiiiciidation to Jiiercy. The rewards in the bagnios are: advancement
from a lower to a higher class; elevation to positions of trust and
responsibility ; exem|»tion from tlie fetters customarily worn in this
class of prisons; and for those alone who have reached the highest
class, recom inundations to tlu^ royal clemency for a full })ard()n.
It is diCliciiIt to decide (so the report declares) which class of discip-
linary punislnnciits is most edicacious, the effect depending on many
individual cin-iimstanceH, which cannot bo known, much less stated, iu
advance. Solitary conlincment gencially reduces to order and quiet-
ness even the most obstinate, and tbis because the ijidi\'i<lual so ])un-
isbed is withdrawn IVoni tlie ovcr-excitcnient produced l>y tlie recurrence
of tbc si)('cta<;Ui in whicb be is both actor an<l witness. Corporal pun-
ishment is for])idden. lly the r<'gulations of ]8L'(;, flogging was a
punishment assigned to a lew grave inisdeniea!U)rs; but tbis regulation:
PRISON DISCIPLINE ITALY MEXICO NETHERLANDS. 41
was modified in 1803, and since then flogging has not been iullicted in
a solitary case.
The local director has authority to inflict the minor punishments; for
heavier ones it is necessary to have the approval of a special council ;
the ofl'ending prisoner must be heard, and an official report must be
drawn up. The more serious cannot be inflicted without notice being
previously given to the central direction.
For the protection of the prisoners there exist the following provis-
ions : A visiting commission (especially for the detention jails ;) an au-
thorized direct correspondence between the prisoner, the minister of the
interior, the director-general, the central inspector, and the magisterial
authorities ; and a systematic inspection of the prisons by the local
authorities and by the central inspectors.
No special discipline, it is held, can be applied to incorrigible con-
victs ; but, as they" may be kept in solitary confinement for the space of
six months, they become impotent to disturb the discipline of the estab-
lishment. The central administration, however, fully recognizing the
many benefits which would accrue from such a plan, proposes to set
apart a penitentiary, where so stringent a discipline can be exercised as
to render superfluous any extraordinary coercive measures, and therein
to gather together that class of convicts which, by subtle art oftener
than by open rebellion, encourages and prompts discontent among the
prisoners, and thus foments a perpetual irritation, so obstructive to the
quietness, confidence, and subordination which are the primary elements
of a genuine moral rehabilitation.
§ 7. It is provided in the new criminal code of Mexico that offenders
sentenced to ordinary imprisonment, or to reclusion,in an establishment
of penal repression for two years or more, and who have uniformly be-
haved well during a period equal to half the time their confinement is
to last, have the remaining period of imprisonment remitted condition-
ally. In this way offenders can not only obtain a diminution of their
punishment, but also receive a free i)ardon, if they have, by their
good conduct, shown themselves worthy of it. Any punishment,
whether of ordinary imprisonment or of reclusion, in an establishment of
penal repression, for two years or more, is to be converted into close
confinement, in case the offender should have misbehaved himself dur-
ing the second or third portion of his time.
All proceeds of the work of the prisoners is given to them if they
have been condemned for political offenses or if they are detained for
minor offenses against the law ; but in the case of those condemned, for
misdemeanor or felony, to imprisonment or reclusion, they have 25 per
cent, of their earnings, if the punishment lasts more than five years, -
and 28 per cent., if the time is less. To the above percentages 5 i^er
cent, more is added when a criminal has obtained, by good conduct,
his preparatory liberty. Moreover, if he supports himself by his work
out of the establishment, another 5 percent, is added; and this may be
increased until the allowance reaches 75 per cent, of the total amount.
The advantage of this system is that prisoners are thus encouraged to
support themselves by their work, and that they maintain with free
persons an intercourse which may be useful, when they recover their
liberty, in enabling them to earn their livelihood without returning to a
career of crime.
Besides the favors above enumerated, prisoners can, by their good
conduct, obtain others. They may enjoy, during the days and hours of
rest, any amusement which the rules of the establishment i)ermits.
They may ajiply one-tenth of their reserve-fund to the purchase of any
42 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
articles of furniture or comfort which the rules do not prohibit. The
kind of work which their sentence condemns them to perform may be
commuted into one better suited to their education and habits.
§ 8. iSTo diminution of the sentences awarded by the tribunals can be
obtained as matter of legal right by prisoners confined in the jails and
penitentiaries of the Netherlands. But, agreeably to a royal decree of
1856, the administrative commissions of the central prisons submit every
year a proposition for pardons or remissions, to be granted to prisoners
who have distinguished themselves by their good conduct. These proposi-
tions, however, include only persons who have been sentenced to more
than three years, and who have undergone at least one-half of their
punishment, and the remission never exceeds six months. Besides
this, all prisoners have the^ ordinary resource of applying to the King
for i)ardon or remission ; and since, in general, a decision is made only
after a report from the commission on the conduct of the prisoners, this
conduct has, generally, a strong influence ui>on the decision.
The portion of their earnings allotted to the prisoners are : To civil
prisoners sentenced to reclusion and to military j)risoners, 40 per
cent. ; to the inmates of the central prisons, 50 per cent. ; and to those
confined in other prisons, 70 per cent. These proportions are not
increased by reason of the prisoners' good conduct. ]S"o other rewards
are given to prisoners beyond this participation in their earnings. The
distribution of premiums has been abolished for some time, and the
industry of the prisoners finds its recompense in the increase of profits,
which naturally result from zeal and capacity. Still, the re-establish-
ment of i)remiums is under consideration at the present moment.
The kinds and frequency of the violations of prison rules differ sen-
sibly in different prisons, and often depend on the more or less intelli-
gent administration of the chiefs and the employes. Insubordination
and quarrels may be regarded as the most frequent infractions. Isola-
tion by night (which is not yet generally introduced) has, in this respect,
produced good fruits. The disciplinary punishments in use are: Re-
striction to a diet of bread and water 5 withdrawal of the privilege of
writing and receiving letters; privation of books; the dungeon; fetters;
and, iu the central prisons, isolation in a cell. All these xninishments
are recorded in a register.
§ 0. The principle of provisional liberation, and, by consequence, that
of the i)ower of shortening the sentence by good conduct, has not
l)cen introduced into tlie criminal jurisprudence of Norway. Only by
royal ])ardon may the duration of a fixed sentence be abridged; but, iu
dcciiling on the question of pardon, the behavior of the prisoner during
his impiisonment is, as a matter of course, taken into consideration,
I'ri.sonos do not receive any part of the ])roceeds of their labor.
I-'oiiMcrly a certain part was allowed them, but the system was aban-
(belied as not expedient. However, tlie (piestion of introducing the
same, syst(!m to a grcalcr or less extent, and in an altered jnanner, has
again been raised. In regard to other rewards as a stimulus to self -
conti'ol and sell'-exeition, in the houses of correction and the fortresses,
an extra allowance of food an<l other small ])rivilegcs arc accorded to
th(^ well behaved and deserving. For those in use in the penitentiary,
lefcrence is mad(! to what Jjas been said in the chapter on prisou-
systems.
Tiie most fre<juent infractions of prison rules are: In the cell-prisons,
<*omtnnnieation with fellow-prisoners; in the other i)risons, quarrels,
illicit labor, attempts to esca])e, and laziness. Oflenses against discip-
line aie piiiijsheil with bread and water, conlin^Mnent in a dark cell, or
PRISON DISCIPLINE NORWAY RUSSIA SWEDEN. 43
with privation of the extra allowance of food ; in the prisons exclu-
sive of the penitentiary, corporal i>unishment is also employed. The
I)unishments are always inserted on the records.
§ 10. In Eussia the discipline of the prisons seems to be in a lax and
inchoate state. The principle of an abbreviation of sentence by means
of good conduct and industry has been admitted only in imprisonment
with hard labor, and even there awaits a regular organization and a
systematic application. Russian law prescribes work for the prisoners,
and grants them a part of their earnings, according to the particular
class of prison. But this law still remains almost a dead-letter ; it has
been executed only in rare cases. The organization of industrial labor
is regarded as lying at the root of the penitentiary improvements now
under consideration by the government. One of the clauses in the pro-
ject of reform relates to the proportion of earnings granted to the
prisoners. Ino system of rewards has yet been established.
Drunkenness is reported as the most frequent breach of prison rules,
and as having been often encouraged by the cupidity and want of
fidelity of the employes.
The disciplinary punishments employed are the dungeon and some-
times castigation or irons. In the better-regulated prisons a record of
the punishments isiiept.
§ 11. Good conduct produces no abridgment of the time of imprison-
ment in Sweden. The King exercises the right of pardon almost ex-
clusively in favor of prisoners sentenced to hard labor for life, and whose
conduct for ten years has been unexceptionable.
Prisoners are encouraged by being allowed a share in the gain de-
rived from their labor. In the associated prisons the amount received
daily varies from one to seven cents of our money. This refers to the
generality of prisoners ; but those who act as foremen, as well as those
Avho are distinguished for skill, get an additional sum rising sometimes
as high as sixty centimes, equal to twelve cents.
In the cellular prisons in the provinces, in which the director procures
both work and materials, the earnings of the prisoners sentenced to hard
labor are distributed on the following scale : The prisoner receives two-
sixths; the director for inspection and furniture two-sixths; theofQcers
who exercise surveillance, one sixth ; and, in order to provide help for the
prisoner when liberated, the remaining sixth is put in a savings-box.
Any prisoner who commits in prison an offense liable to punishment
loses his share of the money placed in the savings-box. Of the two-
sixths which the prisoner receives he may spend two-thirds in buying
additional food, as bread, beer, cheese, lard, «&c ; but this expenditure
must not exceed two francs i^er week. Those who work in the open air
especially rec^uire this extra food. There are no other rewards to stimu-
late the prisoners' zeal.
In cellular prisons the most usual offenses are attempts to communi-
cate with other prisoners, drawing and writing on the walls, and neglect
of cleanliness. In the collective prisons the most frequent violations of
regulations are insults in words and actions to officers and prisoners,
attempts to iirocure spirits, cheating, and thefts.
In cellular prisons the punishments consist of withdrawal of bed-
clothes, diminution of nourishment, or imprisonment in a dark cell for
eight hours at most. This punishment is inflicted, on request, by the
X^rovincial government. In the associated prisons, besides the punish-
ments just cited, there are added imprisonment, with or without labor,
and for very grave offenses tlie bastinado on men; this last in rare
44 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
cases. Imprisonment iu n cell for a period exceeding a mouth can only
be by the central authority. An exact record is kept of all punishments.
§ 12. In all the cantons of Switzerland prisoners may, by their good
conduct, obtain an abbreviation of their punishment by applying for
pardon to the legislative authority, (great council,) which reserves to itself
this right. Such reduction is rarely made conformably to fixed rules.
In many of the cantons complaint is made that chance and caprice play
too cousTjieuous a part, and that commissions of pardon do not always
take account of grave and important facts. In some cantons clemency
is exercised readily enough, while in others this is done only iu excep-
tional cases.
In certain cantons a decree of the legislative authority confides to the
council of state, or to the department of justice, or even to the police,
the right of remitting the latter portion of their punishment (one-twelfth,
for example) to convicts whose conduct has been good. In cantons
where penitentiary reform has made some progress, there is a tendency
to bring down the use of pardons to the minimum, and to substitute
the principle of conditional liberation ; in short, to confide this function
to the direction of the department of prisons, which, having the super-
vision of the penitentiary administration, is alone capable of judging
whether or not the re-entrance of a prisoner into society offers any danger,
and whether a probationary liberation may be safely granted him.
In most of the cantons the prisoners have a share in the benefits of
their labor. As a general thing this part has rather the character
of a gratuity than that of lawful wages. The proportion varies in
different prisons, and in the case of prisoners in different classes of
the same prison, from 5 to 25 per cent. It is proposed by some of
the wisest directors, Mr. Kiihne, for example, of the penitentiary of
St. Gall, to increase the proportion beyond 25 per cent, to the worthiest
of the prisoners. Whatever ma}' be the scale adopted in the different
establishments, the gratuity is granted to all the prisoners who, con-
formably to the regulations, have rendered themselves worthy of it. It
is adjusted at the end of every month or every three months, and is
placed to their credit in their memorandum of savings.
The other rewards employed to stimulate the good conduct and zeal
of tlie prisoners vary in kind and amount, according to the cantons and
the degree, more or less advanced, of penitentiary reform. In well-
administered establishments there are granted to good conduct, to
application, to zeal, and progress in labor and school the following
r(;wards: In the second penitentiary class, liberty to choose books from
the library and to attend the lessons given in class, the use of tobacco —
limitcMJ, however, to tlie hours of promenade in the exercise-yard — and
liberty to have served to them a supplementary or extraordinary ration
of food. In the third or higher class there are added to the above-
mentioned rewards the privilege of promenade and free conversation
with their fellow-prisoners of the same class, liberty to wear their beard,
to work in their free hours for themselves and their families, to adorn
their cells and to have plants in them, the use of a patch of land for .a
gard<!ii, and iidmission to i>laces of trust — such as that of fortMuan — to
sn|)(u iiit<'.nd Wn'.'w fcllow-iuisoners in learning trades, or to execute
certain exceptional lahoi-i in the administrative, industrial, and domestic
s('i'vi(!es.
In tho cantons where the old convict-prisons still exist, th(> most fre-
quent o(fe,nses against disciiiline an; disolx'dience and insubordination;
next come escapes or attempts to es'cape; then lies; and finally immo-
rality in acts and words. In the penitentiaries iu whi(;h the Auburn
PRISON DISCIPLINE SWITZERLAND UNITED STATES. 45
system has been iutrodiiced it is foimd that the infractions most fre-
quent are disorder, want of cleanliness, and viohition of the hiw of
silence ; in the penitentiaries of recent construction, the want of pro-
priety and dignity, lying, idleness, and disobedience.
The disciplinary punishments in use may be divided into three classes:
In the prisons whose organization is imperfect, and where the reforma-
tion of the prisoners is not the aim of the imprisonment, we find exist-
ing the dungeon and corporal puDishmeuts f in penitentiaries on the
Auburn system, more or less completely organized, corporal punish-
ments are gradually disappearing, and are replaced by a diet of bread
and water and by confinement in the dark or ordinary cell; in the
modern establishments there is coming into vogue a new series of pun-
ishments, of a moral order, among which figure, by the side of the
dungeon and the diet of bread and water, admonition, privation of
work, of reading, of visits, of correspondence, and, in general, of all or
a part of the diversions, alleviations, and other indulgences above men-
tioned. Corporal chastisements are passing away, and in their place
are substituted the strait-jacket and the cold-douche bath.
Those who, through mischief or negligence, destroy or injure the
effects, objects, instruments, and raw material placed at their disposal,
are obliged to pay the value of the damage done.
In most of the prisons are found registers in which the punishments
inflicted are fully recorded. These registers, in the modern peniten-
tiaries especially, give complete information as to the occasion, the kind,
and the nature of the punishments inflicted.
§ 13. There are, perhaps, in the United States a thousand prisons large
enough to have the word " discipline " applied to their management;
and in these every variety of discipline, lack of discipline, and abuse of
discipline are found. • In many, little is sought beyond the security of the
prisoner and the convenience of the prison-keeper ; in many others,
the discipline is intended mainly to be deterrent, but through laxity or
severity becomes a stimulus to crime ; in some, it is really deterrent
without being reformatory in aim or result; in a great many, the nominal
aim is reformation, but the reasonable means thereto are neglected ; in
a few, the wise combination of deterrent and reformatory means is at-
tempted, and succeeds (in one direction, or in both, according to the
skill, opportunity, and perseverance of the prison government. But the
great majority of prisons in the United States are, in fact, neither deter-
rent nor reformatory to any great extent ; sometimes because no effort
is made to comply with the laws — which almost everywhere require in
terms this twofold discipline, though they do not often furnish suitable
means — and sometimes because the best agencies are not employed, or
are not continued persistently. The deterrent agencies are solitude,
silence, hard fare, and constant labor ; sometimes also severe punish-
ments are employed. The reformatory agencies are instruction — secular
and religious — industrial training, the encouragement of shortened sen-
tences for good conduct, &g. By some of these means " it is sought to
plant hope in the breast of the prisoner and keep it there ;" and to these
are added gratuities for work, the visits of pliilanthropic persons and
of the prisoner's own family, and the promise of help in leading an honest
life upon his discharge. Conditional pardon, which enters so largely
into the Crofton prison system, has little place in ours, the commutation-
laws, by which sentences are shortened for good behavior, being almost
the only feature of the Crofton system much in use here, and that not
very systematically.
Probably punishments are more relied on than rewards in governing
46 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
the prisous; but there is not rnucli variety of either in most of them.
Flogging- is forbidden by law or nsage in most of the States, but is
practised in some prisons where it is forbidden. The same is true of the
iron yoke, the shower-bath, the iron crown, suspension by the thumbs,
and other modes of torture. Deprivation of privileges, solitary im-
prisonment— often in a dark cell — and wearing a ball and chain, are the
most common punishments. Of rewards, the chief is a shortening of
the sentence for good behavior; this, in truth, is about all there is that
exerts much effect. The other rewards are petty privileges, such as
better food, the use of tobacco, a light in the cell, &c. There is no
exact mark-system, so far as is known to the undersigned, in any Ameri-
can prison, but there may be examples not yet made public.
§ li. The principle of conditional release, or the power of abbreviat-
ing the term of sentence, is fully introduced into the English convict-
prisons. The maximum of abbreviation is one-fourth of that part of
the sentence passed in the public works or congregate prison, no ac-
count being made of the time spent in cellular separation. This remis-
sion is gained by industry alone, which is measured by marks, a certain
number of which are accorded daily to the prisoner, according to his dili-
gence. The diligence and zeal of the convict are further stimulated by a
system of progressive classification, whereby he may pass through four*
classes during his term of sentence, viz, a i)robation, first, second, and
third class ; and certain selected prisoners are also i^laced, during the
last year of their sentence, in a special class. The minimum stay of the
convicts in each of the three lower classes is one year, and the remainder
of the sentence may be passed in the first class, unless a prisoner is
promoted during his last year into the special class. Every promotion
is followed by certain privileges, and each class wears its own badge.
Though limited, these privileges offer inducements which are keenly
felt. They are, in addition to remission of sentence, more frequent com-
munication by visit or letter with their friends, greater freedom for ex-
ercise on Sundays, and increased gratuities to be paid them on their
release.
The disciplinary imnishraents in use are forfeiture of remission,
degradation to a lower class, the loss of privileges gained by industry,
solitary confinement, reduction of diet, corporal punishment, and so on.
The i)ower of punishing a prisoner resides only in the governor and in
the director.
The limits of punishment in both cases are laid down by the secretary
of state, and no punishment can be awarded without full investigation
of the charge coM(lu<;ted in tlie presence of the prisoners. The governor
has ])o\vers sufficient to deal with minor- offenses, and every ])unish-
iiH'Mt he, orders is n'[)()rtcd to the direct()r with a statement of the pris-
oner's (((IV'iise.
I'hc, iliiector, whose functions correspond Avith those of a magistrate,
awards piinishuK-nts for offenses of a grave <'liaracter. Only the director
lias power to award corporal punishment, and lu^ only for certain offenses
dfliiied by thcsccictary of state, and after full inquiry on oath conducted
in the most- formal mann<^r. No unusual punishments may be indicted.
(liaiuH, hatnlciiffs, or means of s[>ecial restraint may not be made use
of except und(!r <Mutain defin(Ml cir(;umstances and undei- strict regula-
tions, and the use of them is always reiK)rted and recorded in a formal
uiannei-. No officer is allow<ul to strike or- abuse a prisoru'r. Should
he find it necessary, on account of the violencie of itny prisoirer, to make
use, of his weapons, he, is always (%illed ni)oM to show that he confiired
PRISON DISCIPLINE ENGLAND IRELAND. 47
himself strictly to the necessities of the occasiou, or, failiug to do so,
he must bear the consequemses.
Every prisoner has the unrestricted right of appeal against the acts
of those above him ; he may lay his complaint in the first instance be-
fore the governor, who is bound to investigate it and to place the ap-
peal on record ; or he may appeal to the higher authority of the director,
who can, if he sees fit, reverse the decision of the governor.
The director not coming in daily contact with the ofiicers and pris-
oners, but only visiting the i)rison magisterially at uncertaiu intervals,
it is of course felt that he can give a fresh and impartial consideration
to any question or complaint.
Besides this the prisoners have the power of petitioning the secretary
of state. They exercise freely their right of appeal and petition; and
the effect of these provisions is not only that prisoners feel that they
cannot be unfairly dealt with, but the officers are constantly reminded
that they are liable to have to answer for any act which they may per-
form.
The plan by which it is sought to bring before the prisoner, in a form
easily intelligible to him, the fact that, as in ordinary life, the advan-
tages held out to him as an encouragement to industry are directly pro-
portioned to his industry ; that he cannot be idle for a day without a
corresponding loss ; that good conduct is necessary as well as industry,
because ill-conduct will deprive him of the advantages he would gain
by his industry — is, as has already been remarked, by a system of re-
cording the industry by marks.
To every man is^ssigned the task of earning a number of marks pro-
portioned to the length of his sentence. These marks may be earned
either at the lowest rate, in which case he must serve out the whole of
his sentence; or at the highest rate, when he gets about one-fourth of
it remitted ; or at some iutermediate rate, by which he earns a propor-
tionate remission.
The record by marks api)lies not only to the amount of remission
which the prisoner can gain from his sentence, but also to every step
of progress made during his imprisonment : for instance, he is re-
quired to pass at least a year in each class ; but during that time he
must earn a definite number of marks, or his promotion is delayed ;
and, further, the gratuity which he earns in each class is calculated
according to the number of marks he earns.
Every prisoner is funished with a card, on w^hich, periodically, his
earnings in marks are recorded; and if he feels himself unfairly dealt
with, he has free right to complain, and his grievances are investigated.
In this manner, day by day, week by, week, and year by year, he can
count and record the progress he is making as regards promotion from
class to class as well as in relation to the accumulation of money-
credits, and the goal of all his endeavors — conditional liberation. He
is thus made to see and feel that he has something to hope and work
for beyond the mere avoidance of ijunishment.
§ 15. In Ireland, discipline is maintained chiefly by moral forces, viz,
by rewards in the form of promotions from class to class, increased
freedom and privileges — as merited by good conduct — gratuities, remis-
sion of part of sentence, &c., and by punishments, taking the shape of
degradation from a higher to a lower class, reduction of food, and the
like. Whipping is legal, but seldom employed.
All punishments are made matter of record.
The most common offenses are insolence, inattention, and unnecessarv
talk.
48 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
OHAPTEE IV.
MORAL AND RELIGIOUS AGENCIES.
§ 1. Ill the Austrian prisons of all kinds, chaplains and religious
teachers are provided for prisoners of every sect, of which the number
is considerable. As, however, the greater number are of the Eoman
Catholic faith, every prison has a Roman Catholic chaplain, and, when
the number of prisoners is sufficient to require so many, two or more.
Besides holding divine service and administering the sacraments, the
chaplains are under obligation to visit the prisoners individually, to
seek to awaken the moral sense within them, to strengthen them by
spiritual counsel and exhortation on their leaving the prison, and, in
general, to labor, in season and out of season and by all suitable means,
to reclaim and save them.
The highest importance is attached to the labors of the chaplains,
since religious instruction is found the most effective means to acquaint
them with the principles of morality and to lift them up from their
moral degradation. Many prisoners have lost heart and have fallen
into despondency and even tlespair, from which they find it impossible
to raise themselves by their own unaided exertion. As a consequence,
they have become callous and indifferent. Eeligion alone is capable of
reconciling them to themselves, to society, and to God. It alone can
restore hope to the criminal, the loss of which has been the chief cause
of his continuance in a course of crime. Eeligious iftfluences are, there-
fore, an essential agency in the moral improvement of prisoners.
Formerly volunteer visitors were excluded froui the prisons. The law
of April, 1S72, permits the visitation of cell-prisons by members of
societies which occupy themselves with the care and improvement of
discharged prisoners.
There are no Sunday-schools in the Austrian prisons, in the Ameri-
can sense of that iustitution ; but, on Sundays and all church-festival
days, lectures are delivered to the prisoners on various subjects of
scientific and popular interest.
The frequency with which letters may be written by the inmates of
the Austrian ])risons is not stated. They write and receive letters by
leave of the director, who must in all cases read and countersign them.
The correspondence of ])risoners with their friends is found to have an
excellent etlcct upon them, keeping up family ties and counteracting
the evil inlluenccs of prison-life.
Prisoners, witii the consent of the director, ma^', from time to time,
receive the visits of their families and iViends, ])rovided these latter are
of good repute, and otherwise unobjectionable. Visits take place in the
conversation-room, except in tlie case of sick i)risoners, and in the pres-
ence of an official. They cannot last beyond a half-hour, must be in a
langnage undcjrstood by the official i)resent, and must relate to matters
approved by him. Their moral effect is generally favorable, as in the
case of corn'si)()ii<lence.
§ 2. The Belgian governmcuit attaches the highest inqtortance to re-
ligious instrnction as a means of refonnjilion, and has given to it the
most conq)lete organization iM)ssibl(;. Chaplains are pi'ovided in all
])risonHand ibr all religions, an<l the rnles re,(|uire them to preside at the
(exercises of winshij) and over all icligions instrnction, to visit the
prisoners in their cells and give them counsel and consolations; to
])ress iq)on tlieir conscience the, diligent ixMlbiMnance of all religious and
MORAL AGENCIES AUSTEIA BELGIUM DENMARK, ETC. 49
moral duties, to direct their reading, to bear their confessions, to j,nve
special instructions to those ignorant of the essential trutlis of religion,
in a word, to fultill toward them all the duties of their ministry.
Prisoners sentenced to correctional imprisoument are permitted to
write letters every fortnight, those sentenced to reclusiououcea month,
and those sentenced to hard labor {travaux forces) once every two
months. Tlie privilege is granted oftener in urgent cases. The effect
is evidently good. It maintains or renews the ties of home and kin-
dred, and aids the officers in the study of the prisoner's character-
Prisoners are allowed to receive the visits of their relatives — father,
mother, husband, wife, children, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts — and
guardians, on the i^roduction of a certificate granted by the local
authority of the places where they reside, authenticating their identity.
K^o other visits are permitted except upon a written order of the supe-
rior administration, of the governor of the province, or of the president
or one of the members of the commission specially delegated to this
effect. In the penal prisons more particularly, these visits tiwke place
in the conversation-rooms, in presence of a keeper. Tliis officer observes
the persons of the prisoner and the visitor, without interfering with
the privacy of the interview. The moral intiuence of these visits is gen-
erally good. The cases are rare (but such have occurred) in which the
effect has been unfavorable.
§ 3. In Denmark a clergyman is appointed to each prison. He alone
is intrusted with the religious teaching of the prisoners. Volunteer
visitors are not permitted to labor in the prisons for the moral improve-
ment of the inmates.
§ 4. In the suuiller departmental i^risons of France some parish priest
acts as chaplain, but in the larger prisons of this class, as well as in all
central prisons, the chaplain is a regular officer of the establishment,
and is wholly devoted to its religious service. Liberty of conscience is
guaranteed to prisoners of all religions. On his entrance, every prisoner
must declare to what faith he adheres, which declaration is verified by
an administrative information. If he does not belong to the Eoman
Catholic religion, he is transferred, whenever it is possible, to a prison
designed to receive persons of the same religious faith with himself.
In the large penitentiary establishments, the chaplains consult with
the directors in determining upon the various religious offices and serv-
ices. They visit the infirmaries, the sick, the places of puuishment,
and the solitary cells. In the sessions of the tribunals at the pretorium
of disciplinary justice, they are entitled to a place among the assessors
of the director. To prisoners who are prevented, by their age or infirmi-
ties, from taking part in the labors of the evening, they give moral,
religious, or instructive readings. They are called upon to give their
advice on propositions for the exercise of executive clemency.
ISo volunteer visitor is admitted into the prisons to labor for the
moral regeneration of the prisoners without a special authorizatian
from the minister of the interior; but there exist, for the departmental
prisons, commissions of supervision, [surveillance^) composed of men held
in the highest esteem, whose mission is to watch over the entire man-
agement, and particularly over everything relating to the reformation
of the prisoners. Commissions of this sort have not, hitherto, per-
formed any services in the central prisons.
No Sunday-school, properly so called, exists in the French prisons.
Yet, with a view to avert the dangers of protracted idleness, the heads
of a number of penitentiary establishments have organized an hour of
H. Ex. 185 4
50 INTERNATIONAL P^ITENTIARY CONGRESS.
school on Sunday, and the administration has generalized this innova-
tion.
In the departmental prisons a special regulation of the administra-
tion determines the days and hours on which attention must be given
to correspondence. In the central prisons, the prisoner has the privi-
lege of writing once a mouth to liis family. He can correspond only
with his nearer relatives or his guardian. The director is charged with
the duty of examining the correspondence of the prisoners both ways.
Beyond cases of special authorization, convicts can receive only the
visits of father, mother, wife, husband, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, and
guardian. During the visit, which does not ordinarily exceed twenty
to twenty-five minutes, an officer is always present.
The moral effect of the visits received, as of the correspondence car-
ried on, by the prisoners, is, in general, rather good than bad.
§ 5. The German states reported :
(1) The highest value is attached in Baden to religious instruction in
prisons. Chaplains are provided for all prisons and for all religions.
They hold religious service, give religious lessons, enter into religious
conversation with the prisoners, inspect the prison schools, keep an
eye on the prisoners' occupations during their relaxation, and corre-
spond with the ministers of their abode; this correspondence gives moral
protection to the prisoners after their liberation. It is their duty to
give particular attention to sick prisoners, to those depressed in spirit,
or showing any tendency to insanity. They visit the sick weekly, and
tlie other prisoners at least every fortnight. It is their duty at these
visits to awaken, so far as possible, moral and religious feeling in the
I)risoners, and to further their reformation.
No volunteer visiters are admitted into the prisons to labor for the
moral benefit of the inmates.
Tiiere are no Sunday-schools in the prisons of Baden.
Prisoners have liberty to write to their friends once a month ; but cor-
respondence with inspectors, the minister of Justice, and the superior
courts is unrestricted. Their correspondence has generally a beneficial
influence on the prisoners, none being allowed which can in any way
intorlere with the punishment. All letters sent or received are read
by the director or the chaplain.
Visits may be received, of right, monthly, and oftener, as in the case
of correspondence, by special leave of the director. They take jjlace in
the ]»resence of an officer, the visitor and prisoner remaining separated.
Their influence is found to be, in the main, beneficial.
(2) In ]>avarin, all the larger prisons have chaplains wholly devoted
to the duties of their oflice; in the district and police prisons, the cler-
gyman of the ])la(;e ofli(!iiites. The regular chaplain is bound to hold
<liviii<' servicer in the foicnoon of every Sunday and holiday and on the
King's birthday, and in the afternoon of Sunday to give one hour's read-
ing or exhortation, and to hold a religious service on one week-day;
to administer the saerjiment to sick jnisoners when they demand it,
and to tlK)se in health onee every three months: to give religious in-
Htrneti(»M twi(;e a week for one hour; to visit the piisoners confined in
cells at h-ast «'veiy fortnight; (o correspond with the clergymen of the
jilaees to wliieli the prisoners belong; and to act as librarian.
Volnnteer Tcligioiis workers :\vo not admitted.
Tlieic are no Sini(la\ schools in the piisons, but on that day instruc-
tion in drawing is given to th(^ prisoners.
There appear to be n(> staled jieriodsfor writing letters ; theonly con-
dition would seem to be permission by the director. All letters, going
MORAL AGENCIES BADEN BAVARIA PRUSSIA — SAXONY. 51
out or coming in, are examined by the director. Their correspondence
has a beneficial effect on the prisoners. If the ties of family have been
broken, they are thereby re-knit; if otherwise, they are made stronger.
Prisoners may receive visits at any time by leave of the director.
The visits are not to last nsually beyond fifteen minutes; they must be
in the presence of an oflicer, und must be carried on audibly, and in a
language understood by him. The visitor may neither give nor receive
anything from the prisoner.
The influence of these visits upon the prisoners, like that of their cor-
respondence, is found to be useful rather thnn injurious.
(3) Chaplains are found in all the prisons of Prussia, and for all forujs
of worshi^j. They hold divine service every Sunday and once during
the week ; administer the sacrament to the prisoners at stated periods ;
give religious instruction ; superintend the primary instruction given by
the schoolmasters ; are bound to labor seriously for the salvation of the
souls of the prisoners; and, with this aim, must visit them regularly in
their cells and in the infirmary.
In all instruction given to adult prisoners, the aim is not so much to
impart new knowledge, either useful or necessary, as to teach them to
rellect, and to liberate them from that sad brutishness which is so often
the chief cause of their crimes. The less instruction is an exercise of
mere memory, and the less it demands a mere mechanical activity, the
more it engages the attention of the entire man, and the more it acts at
once on heart and intellect ; and to that extent it the more efficaciously
fulfils its highest purpose.
It is held in Prussia that the unchanging truths of religion and
morality, when taught in a worthy and striking manner, best fulfil the
highest aims of instruction and are richest in satisfactory results. Such
instruction in prisons is, therefore, regarded as one of the most important
means for the moral reformation of the prisoners.
Private persons who are known to have great interest in all that con-
cerns prisons, and who possess a high moral character, may, at their
request, have admission into the prison, with a view to labor for the
moral and spiritual well-being of the prisoners.
There are many Sunday-schools in the prisons of Prussia, but neither
the manner of conducting them nor their results are stated.
Prisoners must have special permission from the director before they
can either write or receive letters ; but such permission is withheld only
in exceptional cases. All letters are read by the administration. The
chaplain generally delivers the letters addressed to the prisoners; he takes
this occasion for acquiring a knowledge of their relations and their affairs,
and seizes any opportunity he may thus have of inducing them to seek
eternal life. Such correspondence with their friends and relatives as is
permitted has, in general, a beneficial effect on the [)risoners.
Visits to prisoners are only exceptionally allowed, and when the vis-
itor's character is above suspicion. Tliey are made in a room apjiropri-
ated to the purpose and in the presence of an official charged with listen-
ing to the conversation. Their general moral effect is good, and both
visits and correspondence are regarded as an etiicacious remedy for the
despair and wretchedness which so readily take possession of prisoners.
(i) In Saxony, the religious wants of prisoners are equally regarded
and cared tor, whatever their creed may be. Just as in every truly re-
ligious household all the members must mutually help to attain what
is desired, so in the Saxon prisons (it is claimed) everything is arranged
for the purpose of promoting, above all, moral education by common
worship of God and individual care of the soul. Eut the use of extra-
52 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
ordinary moral agencies is not allowerl. It is alleged that tliey have been
found unpractical, and that prisonersplace little conlidence in strangers.
Consequently casual visitors are not admitted, even though their pur-
pose be the moral improvement of the prisoners.
(5) In all the prisons of Wiirtemberg there are Protestant and Catho-
lic chaplains. Their duties are to hold divine service on Sundays and
festival-days, and to give once a week religious instruction to the prisoners
of their respective creeds and general pastoral counsel on all suitable
occasions. For prisoners of the Jewish faith there is similar provision
for religious instruction. The labors of the chaplains are declared to
be most valuable and beneficial in their results.
Permission is not given to volunteer laborers to enter the prisons on
missions of benevolence to the prisoners.
Prisoners are allowed, under certain restrictions, to receive visits
from their friends and to correspond with them. The regulations and
results are much the same as in the other German prisons mentioned in
this section.
§ 6. Under the head of moral and religious agencies, the supreme
director of prisons in Italy, in his report submitted to the congress,
holds the following language :
No one will deny that religion lias an iranaeuse influence over man ; but to exercise
that influence it is necessary that religion should be sincere and implanted in the
heart, and it is in no wise to be confotincled with superstition or prejudice. There is
no doubt, therefore, that, with those prisoners who have that innate religious senti-
ment, practical acts of piety and the exhortations of the chaplains have weigiit; but
with the I'cmainder, though it be well that the ministers of religion should do all in
their power to implant religious feeling, and though the administration neglects noth-
ing which seems conducive to this end, yet it does not consider moral agencies of minor
importance, and the greatest of these is the good example to be set before the deliu-
ijueuts by the behavior of the directing officers and jailors.
In some provinces voluntary or semi-oflicial visitors were formerly-
admitted into the prisons, and the government still allows such ; but
the administration does not deem it exi)edient to pass an opinion as to
their practical usefulness so long as the commission for penitentiary
reform is still deliberating on this important question.
§ 7. All the prisons of Mexico do not have chaplains, nor, when they have
such, do tlu'y also have them for all denon)inations. Even where chap-
lains are ai)i)()iute(l, they have no well-detined oihcial duties to perform,
exce[»t so lar as their ecclesiastical functions are concerned, and their
duty of course is always to advise and comfort the pi'isoner and direct
liim toward reformation. Keligion is believed to be the most valuable
means of reforming tln^ prisoner. On the days and during the hours
allowed by the lules, the <loois of the ])rison are open not only to the
UHMiibers of the protecti\'e boards, but also to all persons who, ac(;ovding
to the Judgment ol' tlu^ council of vigilance, {junta de vigilancia,) are
cai)abl(; of contributing to the moral improvement of the prisoners.
►Sunday-schools exist in some prisons, in others not. The favor of
writing aiul n'.ceiving letters is generally limited. The results of this
(Mjrr«'spoii([<'nce are not very satisfactory.
i'ormeiiy piisoneis could be visited by all their fiien<ls ; iu)w only
those piTsons are a«liiiitted who have h'ave of the (!ouiK;il of vigilance,
when they are belicAcd by the meiidxTS (jf that body cai)ahle of ini-
jnoving the moral condidon of the ]»iison<!rs by their advice and their
example. In that ca.se there is thought to be no necessity to employ
any one to listen to the conversations.
§ H. 'J'heie are no chaplains, as such, attached (!xclusiv(^ly to any of
the prisons of the i^ietlierlands; but, in all thecentral prisons, in all the
MORAL AGENCIES WURTEMBERG ITALY MEXICO, ETC. 53
Louses of detention, and in the greater part of the houses of arrest, the
office of (ihaphiiu and the religious services are coutided to one of the
parish ministers of each religion, who is named by the minister of
justice. The duties of the chaplain consist in performing religious
service on Sundays and feast-days, in making pastoral visits, and in
imparting religious instruction. Keligions instruction, given with in-
telligence, is considered of great importance as an agency in the refor-
mation of prisoners. In some prisons there has been introduced the
system of proverbs. ThivS consists in hanging on the walls of the corri-
dors and cells pithy moral sentences, and in changing them from time
to time. In the opinion of experienced persons, this plan deserves to
be recommended for general use.
Persons of both sexes, outside of the administration, are admitted
into the prisons to labor among the prisoners, with a view to their moral
regeneration. In some cities there are private associations to visit the
prisoners, organized by the National Society for the Moral Amelioration
of Prisoners. •
Sunday-schools have not been established in the prisons of the in eth-
erlands.
The administration of each prison regulates the correspondence of
the prisoners as it judges most expedient. There is no general rule upon
the subject. All the letters received or written by the prisoners are
subjected to the inspection of the directors, and are withheld when
their contents are improper. There is, therefore, no ground to appre-
hend injurious effects, and, in general, the correspondence of the pris-
oners is attended with a beneficial influence.
The prisoners are permitted to receive the visits of their friends as
often, generally, as once a month. A grating separates the prisoner
from his visitor, and an employe is always present to supervise the
interview, which, as a general thing, may not exceed a quarter of an
hour. They cannot converse privately. As in the case of the corre-
spondence, it may be said that the general effect of these visits is good.
§ 9. Every convict-prison in Norway has its chaplain of the Evan-
gelical Lutheran confession, to which faith almost all the people of
Norway belong. In the minor district prisons, spiritual assistance is
generally afforded by the parish minister of the district where the prison
is situated. To the chaplains it belongs to conduct divine service in
the prisons and to labor for the reformation of their inmates by the
further agencies of personal conversation, admonition, and instruction.
E,eligious lessons are regarded in Norway as a very effective agent in
the reformation of imprisoned criminals.
Sunday-schools exist in most of the convict or hard-labor prisons,
but .persons outside of the administration are not admitted for moral
labor within the prisons.
Correspondence and visits are permitted to the prisoners under due
restrictions, and the moral effect in both cases is found to be good.
§ 10. In all the large prisons of Russia there are chapels and chap-
lains. Prisoners of all the different creeds receive the oiiices of religion
from ministers of their own faith, even Jews and Mussulmans.
The report on the prisons of Russia, as already stated in a previous
chapter, was drawn up by Count Sollohub, president of the imperial
commission on prison reform for that empire. On the subject of relig-
ious instruction in prisons the distinguished count holds this language :
In the present condition of things, the duties of the chaphiin.s rest rather on the per-
formance of religions ceremonies than on the giving of formal iiistrnction. Viewed in
its relation to the actual state of things iu the country, I iiud no disadvantages in this
54 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
arranrjement. Ceremonies speak to the eye and the heart. Reli;j;ions instruction re-
quires in the priests who uudertalje it the largest charity and a hij^h civilization. The
aggressive principle of the gospel, when disconnected from mattsrial interests, is cer-
tainly the crown of the servant of God, but this work would require a special clergy
trained for the purpose of this particular mission. In addition to the education of
those who speak, those wlio hear must likewise be educated, that they may under-
stand as well as listen. It is impossible to deny the importance of religious worship
and instruction, but I think in all things excess is pernicious. A man in nu)re favor-
able conditions than a prisoner would immediately lose patience if he had to listen
only to exhortations to virtue and repentance. The prisoner, having no means of
resistance, buries in his heart a hatred which makes repentance impossible, or assumes
a hypocritical garb of piety, in the hope of gaining something by it. I think I am not
mistaken in afiiruiing that the desire to reform ])risoners has often been wanting in an
intelligent com]nehensiou of human nature. Virtue is not manufactured by formal
methods; such methods can only produce the absence of vice, not the presence of
individual morality, which is able to withstand all the assaults of temptation. I have
found out by experience that we have nniny more chances of s-uccess when Ave appeal
to men through their interests than through merely their good sentiments, and that,
by removing from them the opportunity of doing evil, we naturally lead them to do
vs'ell, while we fail to turn them from vice by wearying sermons. At the same time I
should rigorously insist on attendance at divine service on Sunday, on daily prayers,
and on religious instruction in all central inisons. But I think that religious ref<u-mation
should not be the declared object, but left to develop itself in proportion as hope and
confidence re-enter the heart of the criminal, and as he comes to see that his own welfare
depends on his reconciliation to society.
It would ap[)ear that private persons are, to a certain extent, permit-
ted to visit and seek the moral regeneration of inisoners. On this sub-
ject the count says:
There are few persons in Russia who devote themselves to the moral reform of pris-
oners. Some remarkable exceptions exist; among others, Dr. Hase, vrho has left behind
Lim a touching celebrity fen- his effoi'ts in that direction.
There are no Sunday-schools in Eussian prisons, such as they exist
among us. But in most prisons of any size, discussions on scientific
subjects are held on Sunday, in which the prisoners take a lively interest.
As regards the correspondence of prisoners, it is pernntted under the
necessary limitations ; but since the greater part of the prisoners can
neither read nor write, the matter becomes of comparatively little con-
sequence.
Visits from relatives are permitted, but with due restrictions. The
effect of these visits, in a moral point of view, depends on the morality
of tlie visitors. The rei)orter adds :
I do not suppose that parents coming to visit their children could injure them-
Moreover, I regard that degree of disciplinary punishment wliicli susp«'uds the right
of receiving all such visits, without exce[)tion, as unjust and unwise, particularly aa
it often punislies llie visitors much more tlian it does the prisoners.
§ n. Only Lutheran clmplains are emi)loyed in the prisons of Sweden.
Few prisoners are found in them of any otlu'r religious belief.
The duties of the <;hai)hiin are to hohl divine service, administer the
Ha(;iaments, and give religious instnu'tion ; to ascertiun by conversation
the .state of tlie ])risoriers' minds, and seek their reformation; to take
charge of the library and churcli registers, in which latter lie enters
ol>ser\:if ions on each jtrisoner's manner of life and coiuluct. If the
eli;ipl;iin is e(|ii;il to ills high mission and /eidous in its duties, the iacul-
ti(^s of Mie prisoners are considerably dev»'lo|)(Ml ; they gain a ciear i)er-
cpption of justice; and many of tiiem iir(^ h'd to form a firm resolve to
Hve iti future an lioii(>st bfe.
Snmhiy-si'hoois ure found in a few prisons, but they are exceptions
to a general inle. Where, lliey exist, they luive a, beii(>ficial effcM-t.
I'ersods not (;onnecle(i with llu' adminislration e;ni iiave access to the
j)risoiierH only by special permission. Men of high character, and,
known to be prudent and capable of laboring for their moral reforma.
MORAL AGENCIES RUSSIA— SWEDEN— SWITZERLAND. 55
tion, are readily permitted to visit them. In the prisons for womeu
Avell-kuowii ladies have obtained leave to visit the prisoners on Sunday
to iustrnct them, and give them practice in singing.
Th(; privilege of correspondence is pretty freely granted to prisoners,
particularly with their nearest relatives, and is found to have a good
influence on them.
As regards visits, prisoners awaiting trial, and those sentenced cor-
rectionally, have a large license ; but those sentenced to hard labor can-
not see even their nearest of kin without special permission from the
director. Visits are always made in the presence of the director or of
an officer detailed to that duty. Duly regulated, they have no bad
effect.
§ 12. Ministers of the Eeformed and qf the Catholic religion act a«
chaplains in the prisons of Switzerland. The rabbi of the nearest
locality is invited to visit such co-religionists as are occasionally found
in them.
In the establishments which are imperfectly organized, the chaplains,
for the most part, coutine themselves to the celebration of public woi-ship.
In proportion as the prisons approach the category of penitentiaries that
aim at the reformation of the prisoners, these officers are seen paying
regular visitts to them, consoling and counseling them, superintending
the religious instruction of the juvenile delinquents, and fulfilling toward
them all the duties of their ministry.
Eeligious instruction, as a means of reforming prisoners, is looked
upon in Switzerland as of the highest importance and as exercising the
happiest influence, particularly if the person charged with it possesses
the special aptitudes suited to the high mission which he is called to
fulfill, and throws aside, as far as he may, mere dogmatic questions.
Prisoners in whose heart the religious sentiment is not extinguished at
the time of their entrance are easily impressed by the exhortations of
the chaplains; on the other hand, such as do not possess it offer to the
instructions of religion a soil arid and ungrateful. Among prisoners
self-deception and hypocrisy are not unfrequently met with ; yet it often
happens that individuals who reject or are ignorant of the Bible end by
finding in its pages the consolation of which they are in pursuit.
Sunday-schools, properly so called, do not exist in the Swiss prisons.
At Ziirich the chaplain holds a catechetical exercise in the afternoon,
and afterward an instructor gives a lesson in sacred music.
Persons of both sexes, not connected with the administration, are
admitted into the prisons to labor for the moral improvement of the
prisoners. In the cantons which have new penitentiaries, such persons
are authorized to visit the prisoners in virtue of decrees of the legisla-
tive authorities. This is especially the case with members of aid societies,
who have free access to the prisoners whom they seek to succor.
In the female penitentiaries iadxr patronesses are frequently met
with, especially in the cities which were visited in 1839 by Elizabeth
Pry, and where, at the instance of that good and charitable woman,
ladies' aid societies were organized to console, to place, to watch over,
and to sustain criminal womeu. At Ziirich, where a society of this kind
exists, the lady patronesses give to the female prisoners in the peniten-
tiaries regular lessons and take charge of their religious instruction.
The privilege of correspondence with friends is accorded, but under
different regulations and with greater or less frequency in different
cantons.
In the establishments where the progressive Crofton system has
been introduced, prisoners of the middle class can write letters every two
56 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
months, those of the higher class every month. But an extension of
this favor is often granted, especially in cases where the (;orrespondence
is of snch a character as to draw closer the ties of family, to exert a
good inflnence, and contribute to the moral cure of the ])risoner. This
powerful means of moral reformation is more or less neglected in estab-
lishments where the organization is imperfect. As the letters pass
under the inspection of the director, his eye sometimes detects senti-
ments which have their taint of hypocrisy; but, in spite of that, the
correspondence of the prisoners manifests a strong family afitection, and
awakens tender household memories.
The visits of relations and intimate acquaintances are permitted the
same as correspondence, and are most carefully regulated in the prisons
where penitentiary education receives the greatest attention. The in-
ternal regulations of different penitentiaries grant the indulgence of
visits more or less frequently, but the average is about once a month.
As in the case of correspondence, an extension of this privilege is often
accorded when the visits are found to have a salutary effect.
§ 13. The American report on this branch of the general subject is
exceedingly meager, and appears to the undersigned, with all possible
respect to the eminent and noble-hearted author, not quite just to the
chaplains of our higher prisons, which alone, for the most part, of
American prisons, have an officer of that class. There is scarcely a
county jail in the country which enjoys the services of even a nominal
chai)lain, and it is doubtful wliether there is one which has such an offi-
cer exclusively devoted to the moral and spiritual welfare of its inmates.
Most of the state-prisons have chaplains, but few, it is believed, of the
prisons holding a middle ground between the state-piison and the
county jail have them. The report represents indifferent chaplains as
the lule, good and effective ones as the exception. The undersigned
would reverse this order. He has had personal knowledge of many of
these gentlemen, and, as a class, he cannot help regarding them as
earnest, devoted, hard-working, useful prison off;,cers, and, he is sorry
to ho compelled to add, very ill i>aid for the work they do. It has often
been matter of woiuler to him that men so competent could be had for a
comjxMisation so disproportioned to both the amount and the value of
the service rendered. He has known instances in which the services of
chaj>laiiis have been sought by wealthy churches, at largely increased
rates of remuneration, and in wliich they nevertheless resisted the
tempting call and icmained in their humbler position of prison pastor,
from love to tlu^ Master and to those in whom, all fallen and criminal
as they are. He has deigned to declare that He is Himself visited and
minist(;red to. However large the prison may be, even though it con-
tain an avenige population of a thousand or more souls, there is seldom,
if e\'er, more than one chaplain ; and he is charged, not only with the
H[)iritual care of this immense multitude, but also with the oversight of
the pi'isoner.s' correspon<ieiice iind wiMi that of the library, superadded
t;0 all which is not uiifVe(|iieiitly the giving, or at least the su[)erintend-
iiig, of seliohisfic inshiict ion.
Most of our slate ])ris()ns, and some of a lower grade, have Sunday-
schools, large and (louiishitig; not a few have weekly i>rayer-meetings,
which ar(^ atlciided l»y jjiisoneis varying in niimlxM- from a score or so
to several IimimIkmI. Into most of our prisons workers from outside, of
known jniidence and i>i<'ly, are freely admitted to labor, in ai vai'iety of
ways, for the moial and spiiilual benefit of the conN'icts, in most cases
(not in all) with excellent, elfcet,.
Corj'es])ondence and visits of friends are perinitted in all prisons, but
MORAL AGENCIES UNITED STATES ENGLAND IRELAND. 57
nniler a variety of rein'nlatioiis and restrictioiis too luimerons for state-
ment. The general testimony of wardens and chaplains- is that the effect
of both is lieneficial rather than otherwise.
§ 14. In England, every convict-prison has its staff of ministers of
religion, who hold two religions services on Sunday and morning
prayers daily, besides performing all the ordinary pastoral duties during
the week. For the most part, tlie chaplains are not permitted to have
any other occupations than those appertaining to their office, thus being
left free to devote their whole time to the improvement of the prisoners
placed under their spiritual care. The advantage of thus inculcating
religious truth and seeking to awake religious feeling is held to be in-
contestible, and notwithstandiu'g the doubts which have been called out
by injudicious exaggeration of the results of these influences, the ad-
vantages thus afforded are much appreciated by j)risoners, and the exer-
tions of the ministers of religion bear perhaps as much fruit as in the
world outside.
Volunteer working visitors are not admitted into the convict-prisons.
Periodical letters to respectable acquaintances are allowed, the fre-
quency vai\ying according to the class. The same is true as regards the
receiving of visits. Both privileges are found to be beneficial in their
influence on the convicts.
All county and borough jails in England are provided with chap-
lains. Their duties are substantially the same as those of the chaplains
of convict-prisons. No Sunday-schools exist in these prisons and no
volunteer workers are admitted.
Letters may be written and visits received by prisoners on the expira-
tion of the first three months of their imprisonment; but as a very
small proportion of the inmates remain three months, and not one in a
thousand six months, it would seem to be, in regard to the mass, but a
barren privilege.
§ 15. The regulations and usages of the Irish convict-prisons are sub-
stantially the same as those of England in all that relates to the general
subject-matter treated of in the present chapter.
No ofiBcial report was made to the congress in so far as the borough
and county prisons of Ireland are concerned.
CHAPTER V.
SCHOLASTIC EDUCATION.
§ 1. The average proportion of prisoners unable to read, in Austria,
on their commitment, was, during the years 1868, 1869, and 1870, 38 j)er
cent, of men and 50 per cent, of women.
As a rule, all Austrian imsons are provided with schools. All
prisoners of a suitable age to learn, (thirty-five years and under,) and
who are either wholly illiterate or of defective attainments, are required
to attend the prison school.
The subjects taught are the common primary branches, together with
composition, the elements of natural history, physics, geography and
history, and, in rare cases, drawing and geometry. Besides this, in all
the prisons for men, instruction in vocal and instrumental music is
given, but only as a reward of merit and to such prisoners as possess
musical gifts. The progress made in the schools is satisfactory.
Libraries have existed in the j)risons only during the last few years.
58 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
The works selected are, besides those of a religious character, popular
works ou history, geography, natural history, physics, husbandry, tech-
nical subjects, and political economy, books of an entertaining and
instructive character, as biographies of celebrated men, accounts of trav-
els, descriptions of customs and manners, and moral tales. The use of the
libraries is constantly increasing. Those who are able to read receive
books for themselves; for those in associated confinement who are una-
ble to read, readers are appointed. Preference is generally given to tales,
travels, and biographical sketches. Only prisoners of some education
ask for books of a higher standard. The influence of this reading is*
exceedingly good, not only because the keeping of order and quietness
is thereby greatly assisted, but because the mind of the prisoner is in
this way withdrawn from his every-day life, directed to new objects,
stirred to higher and better thoughts, and thereby unconsciously enno-
bled.
§ 2. In Belgium, 49 per cent, of the prisoners when committed are un-
able to read. Every prison with fifty inmates or more has a school or a
teaching lecturer. At the penitentiary of Louvain, attendance is obliga-
tory on all prisoners; at Ghent, it is obligatory on all under thirty years
of age, and is permitted to those who have passed that limit. In other
l)risons, attendance is obligatory on all juvenile delinquents and ou all
adult prisoners who, having a sentence of at least six months, are under
forty; it is permitted to all others. The instruction given in the peniten-
tiary schools includes religion — which is taught by the chaplains or un-
der their immediate direction — morals, reading, writing, arithmetic, ele-
mentary notions of grammar, history and geography — particularly the
history and geography of Belgium — the elements of geometry and linear
drawing in their relations with trades, and other branches of a
l)ractical utility. Great progress is made by the jmsouers in these
studies.
Libraries are found in all the prisons of Belgium. They contain three
classes of works, which meet three several wants : that of reforming
the i)risoners, that of instructing them, and that of diverting their
n)inds by the reading of books at once entertaining, moral, and instruc-
tive.
The prisoners are very fond of reading, and spend much time in it.
The inliu(Mi(;e of these readings is found to be excellent, and the forma-
tion of ])ris()n lil)raries (it is thought) cannot be made with too much
care and disciimiiiation.
§3. In Denmark one or two school-masters are appointed to each
l)rison. I'risoners under eighteen, who are only isolated at night,
rec(;ive a sp(;cial treatment, with two or three hours', instruction a day.
In cellMJar i)ris()ns, convicts under forty receive two to three hours' in-
sLruction ji week. In the associate prisons, instruction is only given
on Sundays, I<]very jyrison has school-rooms and a library.
§4. The average proportion of a<lult jirisoners unable to read in the
Fren(jli prisons on their CDnimittal is 50 per cent.; of juvenile prisoners
81 per cent, are foun*! wholly illiterate.
The organi/alion of primary instruction in the prisons of France
dates l>ack to LSI!*. In virtue, of a (Ua^nie of December UG of that year,
})rimary instruction, embracing nsiding and the first elements of calcu-
lation, was required to l)e, given to prisoiKUs, following, as far as their
nnnilxT perniit ted, the nietlnxl of mutual instruction. Since that time
the administration has eslabbshed s<-,hools in all the inq)orLaiit prisons.
In iSfit;, tlie minist<'r of tin; inteiior ()r(leic(l that a gr«?ater extension be
given toprimaiy instruction, andrequircd that almost the entire prison-
SCHOLASTIC EDUCATION — AUSTRIA BELGIUM, ETC. 59
population should be made to share in it, with the exception of old men,
invalids, and those whose perversity requires their exclusion. The in-
struction given in the prison schools comprises reading, writing, the
first four rules of arithmetic, and the legal system of weiglits and meas-
ures. To this list of branches may be added mental calculation, sur-
veying, linear drawing, and general notions on the geography and his-
tory of France. The administration has not been able, thus far, to al-
low all the prisoners to participate in the benefits of primary instruc-
tion. While striving to give a stronger impulse to instruction, it has
"been obliged to discriminate, in admitting i^risoners to the school, by
receiving first the youngest, afterward adults, and among the latter
those whose conduct is the most satisfactory.
The progress made by the j)risoners is generally rather slow, owing to
the little aptitude of the greater part of them. Many who entered wholly
illiterate leave the prison knowing how to read, to write passably well,
and to perform the simpler operations of arithmetic; but a complete
elementary education is rare. The administration has not been as well
satisfied as it could have wished with the results of the instruction given
in the prisons; and it is at this moment engaged in seeking new meth-
ods of instruction and a better organization of the schools in the peni-
tentiary establishments.
The prison libraries include works for Catholics, Protestants, and
Israelites, which are intended to serve for their moral and religious in-
struction ; also, books of history, accounts of voyages, literary works,
treatises on ordinary and technical science, novels, and miscellaneous
works. These books are examined with care by the council of general
inspection of the prisons. The works of piety admitted by each relig-
ion are designated only on the recommendation of the ministers of the
different religions. The catalogue contains special indication of the
books more particularly adapted to men, to women, and to children.
At this moment the superior administration is engaged in re-organizing
and enlarging libraries in all the penitentiary establishments.
The prisoners are generally fond of reading. Those who have a
knowledge of this art nearly always profit from the practice of it. They
have their Sundays for reading, and on week-days they read during the
hours of rest and at)»meals. In some establishments there are readings
in common to convicts who are unoccupied and to others during the
intervals of labor. Sometimes such readings are given during meal-
time in the refectory. The i)risoners listen to them with interest, but
those who know how prefer to read to themselves. The distribution of
books takes i)lace under the superintendence of the instructor or the
chaplain, who, in his selection, has regard to the antecedents, the apti-
tudes, and the conduct of each prisoner ; and the officers charged with
this duty perform it in such manner as to cultivate a taste for reading
by all the means which are consistent with the exigencies of the service.
Books specially written for pxisoners are not those which they prefer.
They read with greater pleasure books of history, voyages, novels, and
narratives which have touches of the marvelous, of elevated sentiment,
and of renowned actions.
Eeading is found to exert a happy moral influence upon the prisoners.
Those who contract a taste for it during their imprisonment are gener-
ally well behaved. Properly directed, reading effects a salutary revo-
lution in the soul and imagination of the prisoner. Hence, the choice
of books becomes a matter of great importance. Works which amuse
by the interest of the narrative and the charm of the style, and those
w^hich have in them an element of instruction, contribute to enlighten
60 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
and to inform the prisoner at the same time that they afford to him
diversion and consolation. They serye to awaken in him the love of
home, and sometimes predispose him to the duties of religion.
§ 5. The German states report as follows:
(1) In Baden only 4 per cent, of the prisoners are unable to read
when received. Schools are organized in all the prisons. Male pris-
oners under thirty-five are required to attend, women till they are
thirty; beyond the ages named, tbose attend who choose. The sub-
jects of instruction are the same as those in good primary schools.
With few exceptions, the prisoners make satisfactory progress. Every
prison has a good library. The books in it are religious, instructive,
and amusing. The prisoners for the most part are fond of reading.
Books written expressly for prisoners are in little request. Educated
prisoners prefer descriptions of voyages, biograi^hies, and technical
books ; those less educated prefer tales. Suitable reading exercises a
beneficial influence ; it instructs and relaxes the prisoners' minds, and
thus aids their reformation ; it favors discipline by removing the feeling
of enmti and the tendency to disorder.
(2) In Bavaria 12 per cent, of the prisoners on commitment are illit-
erate. Schools are established only in houses of correction and the
general jirisons. Attendance is obligatory till thirty-six; after that, it
is optional ; but prisoners under thirty-six who are already sufficiently
educated are excused, if they desire it.
School instruction comprises reading, writing, arithmetic, geography,
and German ; choral singing and drawing are also taught — the two latter
subjects being optional. Prisoners who attend school for less than four
months make no great progress ; those who have a longer term make
very considerable advance.
The libraries consist principally of treatises of a religious and moral
character, of books which are generally useful, of popularly-written
works on natural and general history, and of popular editions of German
classics.
Almost all prisoners in cells read a great deal and enjoy it, but those
undergoing collective imprisonment prefer conversation. Eeading ex-
ercises a good influence by doing away, in great measure, with the evil
consequences arising from idleness, and promotes the prisoner's improve-
ment by the cultivation of his mind. Simple tales and entertaining
books are ))referred — religious books least of all.
(3) Of one hundred i)risoners sentenced to hard labor in Prussia,
sevent<M'n cannot read when they enter the prison. In other prisons a
less ))('rc,entage are illiterate. Schools exist in all Prussian prisons
except four small houses of arrest.
All prisoners undcigoing (jcllnlar imprisonmen't receive instruction.
Among the associated |)risoners i>reference is given to the young and
to those whose education has been greatly neglected, and whose intel-
lectual facidlies give promise of subsecpient ])rogress.
The iirescrilted subjects of instruction are sacred history, reading,
writing, arithmetic, singing, and sometimes drawing. The lessons in
reading at the same time give instruction in the history and geography
of Prussia. 'J'lu», arithmetic is such as isuselid in daily life. The prison-
ers ai-e iiiligent, in learning, and make satisfactory progress.
The prisons have libr;iiies eonlaining I'eligious, inst rMcti\'e, and (mter-
taining l)(»oks. In l.sii!) the total nnmiter of hooks in these liltraries was
] tt,'llS: 12,210 enterluiiiiiig and instructive, 2;),7 lo educational books;
the remainder were, icligions works.
Most of the prisoners are willing and dilig(^nt readers. They all show
SCHOLASTIC EDUCATION GERMAN STATES ITALY, ETC. 61
a marked preference for histories and works on natural science written
in a popular style. Such reading has evidently a very good influence
on them.
(4) The prisoners in Saxony are generally sufficiently instructed in the
elementary branches, but not many of them have gone much beyond
that degree of education. The penitentiary takes especial care to supply
the defect of the elementary- education by obligatory weekly instruction.
The general and special preparation for their calling is supplied to the
prisoners by free instruction on Sundays. Such instruction is not
obligatory, but the prisoner has a claim to it arising from good behavior.
It is voluntarily given by the officers, and not by the clergymen and
teachers alone. The library in the penitentiary of Zwickau contains
5,000 volumes of religious, instructive, and entertaining books, thus
providing for all the mental wants of the prisoners who, under the care-
ful assistance of the teachers, are diligent readers.
(5) Prisoners unable to read and write on their admission to the prisons of
Wiirtemberg form a rare exception. Out of 1,317 prisoners pi-esent June
30, 1871, nine could neither read nor write ; eight could read and not
write. All the prisons have schools. The prisoners must attend school
till thirty years of age ; prisoners above that age are allowed to attend.
The prison schools are as efficient as good primary schools. The branches
of instruction are reading, writing, arithmetic, moral and sacred history,
geography, history of the kingdom, and, in some prisons, drawing.
Those sentenced to short imprisonments have their former knowledge
recalled and fixed more firmly in their minds; those suffering long
imprisonment have it extended, and thus get a higher education. Atten-
tive and diligent prisoners are muchideased to take part in the instruc-
tion. In all the prisons there are libraries. The books are religious,
instructive, or entertaining.
§ 6. Both scholastic and industrial education is regarded bj' the peniten-
tiary administration in Italy as a ])rincipal agent for the reformation of
prisoners. To judge of the breadth and efficiency of the former, it will
suffice to compare the degree of instruction possessed by those who enter
and those who leave the penitentiaries. The illiterate among those
entering are : In the bagnios, 92 per cent. ; in the penal establishments,
64 i^er cent, ; and in the establishments for minors, GO per cent. These
l^ercentages are reduced for those leaving the prisons to: In the first
class named, 73 ; in the second, 46; and, in the last, 12 for the houses of
custody and 3 for the reformatories.
In each penitentiary there existsii school, to which is admitted the largest
possible number of prisoners, the youngest and best conducted having
the preference. In the houses of detention and the reformatories, the
school takes a wide range, as it admits all the inmates indiscriminately,
and in these are specially taught drawing, vocal, and instrumental mu-
sic, agriculture, some foreign language, &c., and this with admirable
results. Every prison, whether for juveniles or adults, has a small
library belonging to it, the formation of which specially occupies the
attention of the central direction. The greater part of the works
composing these libraries are books written si)ecially tor prisoners, and
others selected from educational works, written in a pleasing style and
l^resenting clear and elementary notions of the national history, mechan-
ics, moral tales, &c. As soon as the prisoners acquire the ability to
read, they show a great inclination to it ; but almost invariably they
seek in books some diversion from their monotonous life, or food for the
imagination, rather than a fund of solid knowledge ; consequently few
of the books read by them are of a didactic character, but the greater
62 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
part are novels or romances, of course always of an unimpeachable moral
tendency.
§ 7. Schools do not exist in all the prisons of Mexico. Wherever they
do, tbey are usually frequented by all illiterate prisoners.
The education imparted consists of tlie various branches of primary
instruction and of religious and moral teaching. The progress made is
satisfactory.
There are no libraries in the Mexican prisons. Generally prisoners
do not read much, as they belong for the most part to the lower classes
of society, where education is seldom imparted. Many are not able to
read.
§8. Thirty-five to thirty-eight in the hundred will indicate, with suffi-
cient accuracy, the proportion of prisoners in the Netherlands who are
unable to read and write at the time of their entrance.
Schools exist in all penal establishments, except in the police and
cantonal prisons. In the cellular prisons the instruction is given in the
cells. All prisoners, up to the age of forty years, who do not know how
to read and write, are obliged to receive that instruction.
The branches commonly taught are reading, writing, and arithme-
tic. The system of instruction leaves much to be desired. Reforms
have been introduced or are in contem]ilation. In the two central
prisons for juvenile prisoners, the system of instruction is all that can be
desired.
There are libraries in all the prisons, which include books on morals
and religion, histories, travels, &c. The books are specially classified
according to the dift'orent religions. Most of the prisoners are fond of
reading; they generally prefer books of history, travels, and the like.
Their reading has a happy effect upon them.
§ 9. Only about one in the hundred of persons committed to prison in
!Norway is entirely illiterate.
Schools exist in all the penal prisons, but not in the minor prisons of
the districts ; yet, even in these, some instruction is given to ignorant
young prisoners who remain for any considerable time. Instruction is
given in religion, reading, and arithmetic; to some extent, also, in
writing and music. Generally, the prisoners make good progress.
Lil)raries are found in all the prisons. Those in the district prisons
contain chieily, though nor wliolly, religions books; those in tiie penal
prisonsenibrace, besides religious works, histories, travels, &c. Naturally
the prisoners, especially those confined in the cell-prisons, apply them-
selves eagerly to reading, and evidently ])rofit by it.
§ 10. In Russia very few of the i)risoners, when received, are acquainted
with reading and writing. Schools are giadnally introducing into all
the prisons of any size. Attendance is optional. As regards the kinds
and dcgrco of instruction imi)arted, no details can be given, as j)eniten-
tiary educiition is still in its infancy. It is proposed, when fully organ-
ized, lo iiiaUe it broad and comjtrehcnsivo. Mr. Savenke, a distinguished
S|iecj;ilist, has already made, some remarkable expiu-iments and achieved
extraordinary icsults in this department of prison work.
Lihiaries, though still hut poorly supplied, are found in many prisons.
The prisoners are fond of reading and of having books read to them,
wiieii there is no eonqudsion in the case.
§ II. Neaily all the prisoneis eommitted to the Swedish prisons can
rea<l an<l mue.li the greater part write.
Sehools exist in the associate prisons; in the cellular prisons, the
iniuates are instrncted in their cells. All the illiterate are allowed to
attend upon the lessons, unless they are too old to profit by them.
SCHOLASTIC EDUCATION NETHERLANDS NORWAY, ETC. bS
Instruction is limited to reading, writing, religion, the elements of
history and geograpliy, orthography, the four fundamental rules of
arithmetic, and natural history. The progress is about equal to that
made \u the national schools, and is satisfactory.
There are small libraries in the prisons. The prisoners voluntarily
spend their leisure time and their holidays in reading, either individ-
ually or in classes. In the latter case one of themselves or an officer
reads aloud.
They prefer religious and moral books or accounts of voyages. On
Sundays they practise sacred music. These exercises have an excellent
eff"ect both on the minds and manners of the prisoners.
§ 12. The degree of illiteracy varies in the different cantons of Switzer-
land. The official report sent to the congress from this country states
the gene'ral average, on committal, of wholly illiterate prisoners at 17 per
cent., and this, notwithstanding education is obligatory in Switzerland
and in fourteen cantons is also gratuitous. These facts, taken together,
show how prolific a source of crime ignorance is.
Schools are organized in all the improved penitentiaries, and in many
other establishments lessons are given by the chaplain. It even happens
that these duties are confided to a prisoner, if he is a teacher by profes-
sion, or if he possesses the necessary knowledge and aptitude. In peni-
tentiary establishments in which schools are opened, all the prisoners,
except those excused by age — above forty-five — and those subjected to
the cellular regime^ attend lessons in classes. The prisoners receive, on
an average, from four to five hours' schooling per week. Those who are
in the cellular stage are visited by the instructor in their cells, and
there commence their course of instruction. Three classes are formed
in the best organized penitentiaries. In the lower class the elementary
branches only are taught ; in the middle class progress is made toward
the higher branches of study ; and in the highest class are studied
mathematics, physics, technology, and linear drawing, so far as these
sciences are applied to arts and trades; and even, in some cases, foreign
languages are taught.
The progress made differs much in the case of different prisoners.
Many are remarkable for their zeal and ])ower of acquisition, while others
advance but slowly. The organ of thought, little accustomed to being
used, has lost its force. The power of memory is often wanting, and
the result in these cases is a stupefaction, which leads to indifference.
Still, the average progress made is highly satisfactory, especially in the
case of juvenile delinquents.
Libraries are found in all the prisons. In those of the cantons where
prison discipline is little advanced, the number of books is limited, and
works exclusively religious predominate. In the penitentiaries which
are better organized the libraries are composed of moral and religious
books, of works of general history and the history of Switzerland, of
biographies, travels, ethnography, natural history, works on mechanics,
agriculture, belles-lettres, &c. K-omances of a moral cliaracter are not
excluded.
The prisoners read, relatively, a great deal in the penitentiaries where
they pass Sunday in their cells, and where they have at their disposal
a variety of works. They generally prefer moral tales, narratives of voy-
ages, biographies, Swiss and general history, and works of popular
science. Reading is found to have a very beneficial effect upon the
prisoners. It enlarges the circle of their general knowledge, and by
fuller explanations of what they had learned iu the way of routine, it
developes also their practical knowledge. It is by keeping their minds
64 INTERXATIOXAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
continually occupied by labor, or by moral and intellectual recreations,
that that self-respect is oftenest awakened in prisoners wbich con-
stitutes the best guarantee against secret vice. These elevating and
noble agencies calm an ardent imagination, and often put to tligli^t ideas
inspired by base passions and by vicious and criminal sentiments.
§ 13. The general condition of prisoners in the United States, in point
of education, is low as compared with the whole population of the country.
Yet it differs much in different States. In Massachusetts, for a period
of eight years past, the statistics show very nearly one-third of all
prisoners to be wholly illiterate ; yet in tlie highest prison, at Charles-
town, the proportion of illiterate convicts since the beginning of 1804
has been scarcely more than one in ten. In the Philadelphia prison,
(eastern penitentiary,) out of 7,092 prisoners received between 1829 and
1872, about one-fifth (1,418) were wholly illiterate, and almost a sixth
more (1,124) could only read. In the western penitentiary of Pennsyl-
vania, at Pittsburgh, the proportion of illiterate convicts is less, (42 in
375, or one-ninth,) while those who can read only is still smaller (47 in
375, or one-eighth.) In the county prisons of Pennsylvania, more than
a third of the prisoners are illiterate, and the same is true of New
York; but, in the large Western States of Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and
Wisconsin, the proportion of the illiterate is smaller, and probably does
not exceed one-fourth. Out of 8,744 convicts received by Mr. Brock-
way in Michigan, 2,100 were wholly illiterate; but in the Michigan
vState-prison, only 42 out of 356, or less than one-eighth, were wholly
illiterate, though only 28G, or three-fourths, could both read and write.
In the Iowa state-prison, 34 out of 21G could neither read nor write ;
in the Kansas state-prison, 61 out of 303 ; while 42 more could read
indifferently, but not write. In California, 226 convicts in the state-
prison out of 732 (nearly one-third) were illiterate. But when we look
at the late slaveholding States, the proportion of illiteracy greatly in-
creases. Of 609 convicts in Maryland, 394, or nearly three-filths, could
neither read nor write; of 389 in North Carolina, 264, or more than two-
thirds, can neither read nor write ; in the other fourteen Southern States
the proportion is probably about the same. Practically, then, two-thirds
of the prisoners in these sixteen States are illiterate, while in the rest
of the Union something more than one-third are so, probably ; so that
about half the 38,000 prisoners now in conhnement are practically with-
out education, and a large proportion of the remainder possess it to only a
very limited extent. The women in prison are not so well educated as
tiie men, an<l the short-sentenced convicts, as a rule, not as intelligent as
those sent to liigher prisons.
Th(5 provision made lor the mental imi)rovcment of prisoners is better
now in most of the States than it was a few years ago. Public attention
has b(M'n drawn to the subject, and, in a few prisons, not only libraries
and schools, but lectures have been establishetl, with a view to the gen-
eial cduciition of tlui convicts and to aid in their reformalion. The
b(^st instaiM-e of this prison instruction in the United States is ])robably
found in the Detroit House of Corre(;tion, where a school-systt'in was
established in IS(i9, when the number of convicts was about 3()0 ; on the
Jst of May, 1872, it was 402, of whom 296 were men and 106 women.
During tin* year 1871 the average number of convicts in the [)rison was
3S5j in school 219, or nearly two-thirds of the whole number. Of this
average, 141 were men and 78 women, the, schools being separate. In
Ills last leport, Mr. Hrockway says :
Tliin HVHtciii was iiitrodiici'd iuiioiif^ilio ])risoiHnH to aid (Ikmi- reformat ion, and is now
condiiclcd for tliis |Hirpos(^; not ho niucii to relievo tin; monotony of iniprisonnient and
to iniiiart tin,' aliility to lead, writt', and cipln r, loi- the convonlonco of tlicHo accoiii-
SCHOLASTIC EDUCAflOX SWITZERLAND UNITED STATES. G5
jtlishmouts, us to discipline the miud and fit it to receive aud to evolve iu the life the
thoughts and principles that constitute their possessors good citizens. Attendance
upon the school is made obligatory, and the intellectual tasks are required, as are the
industrial. The sessions of the general school are two and one half hours each, on two
evenings every week, and are for recitations chietly. The writing-school is also held
on two evenings each week for both men aud women, aud the men's writing-class is
followed each evening with a normal or teachers' class, iu preparation foi: the general
school. The women associate a singing-exercise with their writiug-class on each
evening. All prisoners wlio attend school are supplied with a light tii their cell, for
study, aud all draw books from the library. Every Saturday, at 5 o'clock, all the
prisoners iu the institution (numbering uow 440) assemble in the cluipel to listen to a
lecture. This is the crowning feature of our educational effort ; during 1871 we had
forty-six lectures — carefully-prepared, well-delivered lectures — many of which had
been delivered to first-class audiences of citizens, aud were worthy of a place iu any
lyceum-course.
The followiug details, given by the teachers, are too important, as
well as too interesting, to be omitted :
The twenty-one classes into which the school has been divided have been taught by
twenty-eight teachers, selected with a single exception from the prisoners themselves.
The changes in teachers have been much less numerous than was the case in previous
years. It has been noticed that men sentenced for considerable periods make the best
teachers, not simply from the fact that they take a greater interest in what must
occupy them for some time, but because they have more force of character, more deci-
siveness. Some of the worst men, morally, have made the best teachers. From the
monthly record of progress which has been kept, it appears that the work done by each
of the prison classes in arithmetic, which has been the subject in reference to which
chiefly the school has been graded, has averaged as much as that which is usually done
by three classes of corresponding rank iu our public schools. In other words, a year
and a half school- work in arithmetic has been done during the last forty-five evening
sessions.
The song of opening, the brief talk upon some scientific theme, the lessons of the
evening, have been listened to with attention and entered upon with avidity. There
is evidence on cA^ery hand that the school has famished the themes on which much
thought has been bestowed iu the woi'k-shop aud in the cell. The pleasure in the
business of the school-room, the evident delight of the men in the work assigned them,
the progress they have made in manners and in studies, have been much greater than
I at all anticipated. I thiuk no one before the trial would have said that men long
unused to study, or who had never known it, working all day in the shops, with two
evenings' instruction per week by their fellow-prisoners a little in advance of them-
selves, would iu main studies make two or three times the progress which the pupils
iu our public schools make under the most favorable circumstances; and yet such has
been our constant experience. Three years ago the women's school had bat one
teacher. There were none among the prisoners competent to assist iu the work of
teaching. There are at this date seven regular assistants teaching quite successfully.
They have been educated for it in the school ; and w^^hiie they are teaching others they
receive also [>ractical instruction, not only in the lessons which they are studying, but
in methods of teaching. The school is now very well graded and classified. Nightly
records are made of each individual in school, and a system of monthly examinations
aud reports is in operation, which not only tests the progress of the pupils, but meas-
ures the success of the teachers also. Hence the new school-year of ld72 opens very
auspiciously.
This testimony is the more reliable, especially iu what relates to the
comparative progress made by the prison-students and by the pupils in
the public schools, inasmuch as Mr. Tarbell, the principal of the male
prison-school, is also principal of one of the most important of the public
schools of Detroit, and hence speaks with thorough knowledge of both
classes of schools and scholars.
Mr. Brockway makes this frank confession aud gives this sound ad-
vice :
In view of the benefits of the school it seems incredible that 1 conld have spent
more riiau twenty years iu the management of prisoners, aud never, until I8iS, have
, introduced this measure. Let me urge all who can do it thi)roughiy to put this feature
into their nniuagement, as indispensable to satisfactory reformatory results, working
and waiting for such changes in the law as shall enable us to carry the educatiou of
every prisoner we receive to a point promotive of liis pecuniary piosperiti', his cousciou-*
self-respect, aud his probity of deportment.
H. Ex. 185— J
QS INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
General I'ilsbury, of the Albany penitentiary, the teacher of Mr.
Brockway in general prison management and discipline, is, as regards
penitentiary education, nobly following the example of his distinguished
pupil. He has fitted up a large and commodious school-room, giving a
desk to each convict-scholar, and other accommodations equal to those
afforded in the best public schools of our large cities. The work of
instruction is ^gorously prosecuted and is yielding satisfactory results.
Prison-schools are organized or instruction is given at the cell-
door in many of our state-prisons ; but it is far from being as thor-
oughly organized or as effective as at the Detroit House of Correc-
tion. Of the 1G,000 prisoners in the state-prisons of the Union at the
present moment, from 4,000 to 0,000 may be receiving scanty instruction
in schools of some sort. Of the estimated 22,000 prisoners in common
jails and houses of correction it is safe to say that not more than 3,000
are receiving any scholastic instruction whatever. We have already
seen that about 20,000 of the 38,000 prisoners in the whole country are
practically illiterate, and certainly less than 8,000 of these are under
instruction in the prisons. Such a condition of things calls loudly for
reform, and it is, therefore, a cheering circumstance to be able to add
that the number of prison-schools is constantly increasing, and that
their character improves day by day.
The condition of penal institutions in the United States is much better
in respect of libraries than of schools. Most of the state-prisons and
houses of correction have libraries, some of them large and excellent.
Probably the aggregate number of volumes in these two classes of prisons
is 25,000. With the exception of the States in which slavery prevailed
till within a recent period, of jirisoners confined in the state-prisons
from eight to nine-tenths are able to read sufiliciently well to be enter-
tained and profited by it. The taste for reading, thanks to the good
libraries in our prisons, has become quite general with the prisoners;
and there is a singular unanimity among the ofUcers of prisons as to
the high advantage they derive from the indulgence of this taste. With
one voice they bear testimony to the value of the libraries in communi-
cating useful knowledge to the prisoners, in elevating their minds, in
beguiling many an otherwise tedious hour, in making them cheerful and
contented, in aifording material for profitable reflection, in supydying
good topics for conversation with them, in improving the discipline^
and in constituting one of the most elfective of reformatory agencies.
§ 14. The dei>artment of education in the English convict-prisons, in-
cluding the care of the library and the distribution of books among the
l>risoners, belongs to the chaplain. Jiooks are supplied to the prisoners,
])oth of a i)ur('ly religions and of a more general character; and those
who ai<i uncdm-ated are taught by a staff of schoolmasters at least the
elements of reading and wiiting; those wlio liave already some knowl-
edge have ()](|>ortiiniti('s an<l encouragement in improving themselves.
Asa knowledge of reading and writing atfords soniuch opportunity for
mental and moral improvement, and may have so im])ortant an elfect on
a jjrisoner's well being in after-lii'e, gr«'at inducements are oflered to
prisoners to exi-rt themselves to attain it, by rendering some of the sub-
sequent pri\ih'ges they may gain conditional on their being able to read
and vvrit(^ l''or example, no t;()n\iet can be i»romot«'d to the first class
unless he, can read and \\iit<;; and, alter he, has been under instrnelion
a snUieient t ime, he is «)bliged, if he, wishes to «'ii joy (he ])ri\'ilege. of com-
iiinnicalirig Wy letter with liis friends, to <lo it himself, an<l without as-
Kistanc<'. C)f eours<', exceptions to this rule arc made, in the case of
men who, from age or mental in<'a|iaeity, cannot be expected to
SCHOLASTIC EDUCATION — ENGLAND — IRELAND. 67
acquire even the elemeuts of knowledge. Half-yearly examinations
arc held to ascertain the progress made by each prisoner, and the result
is, in the main, satisfactory. Of 775 prisoners discharged from the
prisons at Chatham, Portland, and Portsmouth, the 158 who could
neither read nor write when convicted had learned to do both while in
prison ; and most of the remainder had made advances in the knowl-
edge which they had previously possessed.
Of 157,223 committed to the county and borough prii^ons of England
in 1870, 34 per cent, could neither read nor write, and 02 per cent, could
do one or both imperfect!}-, leaving only a residue of 4 per cent, who had
mastered these important arts. Most or all of these prisons have schools
and libraries. But the report submitted by the inspectors to the con-
gress affords no information on these points beyond this naked state-
ment.
§ 15, Of prisoners committed to the Irish convict-prisons, 22 per cent,
of males and 03 per cent, of females are wholly illiterate.
Libraries exist in all the convict-prisons, but they do not appear to be
very well provided with books, beyond those of a religious character, which
are chiefly Bibles, prayer-books, and catechisms of the Episcopal and
Roman Catholic churches. Schools are organized in all the prisons, and
the work done in them is highly commended by the inspector of public
schools..
CHAPTER VI.
PRISON LABOR.
§ 1. Penal labor, as such, does not exist in the prisons of Austria,
although difficult and disagreeable work is sometimes awarded by way
of disciplinary punishment. A considerable variety of trades is pursued in
the Austrian prisons. Ko less than twenty are named, and the state-
ment ends with an et cetera. Besides handicrafts pursued within the
prison-walls, trustworthy prisoners who so desire are employed in open-
air work, as farmers, gardeners, masons, bricklayers, laborers on streets
and railways, stone-breakers, &c. Latterly prisoners sentenced by
the higher courts are much employed in out-door work. The effect of
this is found beneficial in two ways : 1, the prisoners so occupied, the
greater part of whom are serving out their first sentences, are thus saved
from the evil effects of association with other prisoners ; and, 2, their
health is better, and hence their iiower of production while at work is
greater.
The system of hiring the labor of the prisoners to contractors is preferred
in Austria, provided, always, that contractors of a suitable character
can be found; otherwise, the prison-direction manages the labor on
behalf of the state. The contract-system is preferred for two reasons :
first, because it prevents loss and damage ; and, secondly, because it
enables the officers to devote themselves entirely to what is deemed their
proper duty, the care of the prisoners. There is, nevertheless, confessed
to be a grave disadvantage connected with this system in the fact that
an outside element is thus introduced among the prisoners unfavorable
to their moral improvement. Still, it is believed that this disadvantage
may be reduced to a minimum by a careful selection of contractors,
foremen, and workmen. The average proportion of prisoners for the hist
three years who were ignorant of a trade at the time of committal was,
in the higher prisons, men, 8 per cent. ; women, 24 per cent. -, in regard
/
68 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
to the other prisons, statistics are wanting. Every such prisoner learns
a trade in prison, if he is sentenced for a sufiiciently long time. Pains
are taken to guide the prisoner in judging of his own capability, that so
he may learn to value it, and be thereby induced to earn an honest
living. Thus he is taught, not only how to work, but how to estimate
the worth of an uiiright life ; and he is quickened in his industry by
receiving a portion of what he earns during his incarceration.
§ 3. Ko distinction is made in the prisons of Denmark between penal
and industrial labor. The contract-system is in use here. It is regarded
as the best, both economically and with regard to reformatory effect.
However,it is hedged about with the greatest care, and all intermeddling
by contractors with the treatment of the prisoners is completely cut off.
Labor is regarded not merely as a source of revenue, but rather as au
essential condition of the due execution of the sentence, and as a neces-
sary agent in the moral regeneration of the prisoner. The profit derived
from it does not meet the current expenses of the prisons, since these,
including the administration, amount to $70 a year j^er capita, while the
profit of the prison labor is only about §40.
§ 2. Penal labor, as distinguished from industrial, does not exist in
the prisons of Belgium. The report enumerates thirty industrial occu-
l^ations as those in which the i>risoners are engaged. The employments
introduced into the prisons are chosen, preferably, from among those
most likely to afford the prisoners, after liberation, the means of an
honest livelihood. It is held in Belgium that labor ought not to be im-
posed as a punishment, since the first necessity of man is labor, and the
first sentiment to be developed in him is the love of labor. The liberated
prisoner ought not to carry with him, on his discharge, the idea that
w^ork is a i)unishment in this world, and that he has suffered it long
enough during his imprisonment to hasten, at the hour of his deliver-
ance, to free himself from its chains. Labor should be exhibited to him
in tlie prison (as it is in society) as the source of the physical and moral
elevation of man. He ought, in all things, so to identify the life of man
with the necessity and the attraction of labor that even in captivity it
should be still, if not the image of happiness, at least a solace attached
to its exercise and an idea of punishment from its privation. In a word,
if labor ought to enter as a penal element into penitentiary imprison-
ment, it is not in the use but the privation of it. Undoubtedly, labor
ill penitentiary imprisonment ought to be obligatory; but it ought not
to l)e inii)osed on the i)risoner under 'the empire of constraint, but as an
obligation to wliich his reason, his interest, his necessities, everything,
oiigiit to urge him. I'enal labor is, therefore, repudiated in Belgium as
inconsistent, in its very nature, with the fundamental idea of a true
prison discipline.
Two systems of labor are found in the Belgian prisons, namely, that
of letting the labor to contractors and that of working it by the state.
ICadi of thes(! systems is thought to have its special advantages and
<lisadvantag<'S. Tiie former, it is claimed, yields the largest revenues
and oilers facilities for diversify ijig the lalK)rof the juisonersand afford-
ing them f)ccupations suited to their special aptitudes, while the latter
(itlcrs certain ad\aiilages, (though it is not stated what they are,) when
it is a f|ucstion of labor of easy execution or of the creation of products
for tiie usti ol the administration itself, dare is taken to state in the
r<'f)ort sent in l)y Belgium that the contractors are [)lace(l under the
ininie<liate- supervision of the directors, a statement which is tanta-
mount to an a<lmission that the system is extJemely o[>en to abuse, and
n<'i ds to be guarded ;ind wjitclicd with the greatest circumspection.
PEISON LABOR AUSTEIA BELGIUM DENMARK, ETC. 69
Only one system of lettiug the labor prevails — tliat of awarding it to
contractors who offer remunerative prices and adequate guarantees of
solvency and moralit3\ All the prison-keepers are required to be arti-
sans, and they are charged, not only with the supervision of the i)ris-
oners belonging to their several sections, but also witii instructing the
prisoners in the trades which they are learning. From 60 to 70 per cent,
of the prisonei^ have no regular business or assured means of support
when committed. It is looked upon as a point of the greatest import-
ance to impart to them, during their imprisonment, the art of self-help
by teaching thera some regular business and training them to the love
of work ; the more so, as it is believed that ignorance of a business
and aversion to labor are among the chief causes which impel men to
the commission of crimes against property. Hence special effort is made
to give to the prisoner a clear perception and strong realization of the
necessity of mastering a business while undergoing his punishment, so
that, after his release, he may be able to work for his food, his bed,
his clothing — in a word, to assure the satisfaction of his essential
wants.
§ 4. In the prisons of France there is no x^eual labor, as that expres-
sion is commonly understood. The penal system is no longer founded,
as formerly, on suffering and terror. Corporal punishments have dis-
appeared from it. What is desired at present is to punish the criminal;
what is sought as the end of that punishment is his reformation. There-
fore, industrial labor alone is found in the prisons, obligatory in the
case of those under sentence, permitted in the case of the arrested and
the accused. It is thereby sought to prevent the dangers of idleness
and to form the taste and the habit of labor. In the smaller prisons
there i« difficulty in organizing the labor. In the central prisons the
labor is thoroughly organized ; if any are without occupation, it is the
exception, and not the rule. Large industrial workshops in these estab-
lishments continually present a scene of busy toil. Different industries,
to the number of fifty or sixty, have been introduced into the male cen-
tral prisons. The principal are shoe-making, the manufacture of hosiery,
weaving, button-making, cabinet-work, lock-smithing, the manufacture
of hardware, tanning, &c. There are, besides, three establishments
in Corsica and one in Belle Isle, in which the prisoners are engaged
in agricultural labors. Sewing, which can be applied to very different
kinds of work, is almost the only industry pursued in the female cen-
tral prisons. Piece-work is the general rule. With a view to avoid the
competition of prison labor with free labor, the rates of payment for the
work done have to be studied and regulated by the administration,
which carefully considers before-hand the different interests involved.
The rates must be the same as those paid to free industry for the same
kinds of labor.
The contract system of labor prevails in most of the prisons of France,
and is the one to which the administration gives its j)reference.
Of the men committed to the central prisons, 5 per cent, had no reg-
ular calling or business i:)rior to commitment ; of the women, 12 per
cent. Evidently this cannot mean that so large a proportion had
learned trades and become artisans. The administration exerts itself,
as far as possible, to cause to be taught to the prisoners previously
without a regular business some calling which will enable them after
liberation to gain an honest living.
§ 5. Germany reports : There is no merely penal labor in the prisons of
any of the German states.
(1.) In the Grand Duchy of Baden, the labor of the prisoners is not let
70 'international penitentiary congress.
lb
to contractors, but is managed by tlie administration itself. This sys-
tem is preferred because it enables the authorities to observe the state
of each prisoner and to exclude all outside elements prejudicial to dis-
cipline and reformation. It is sought to introduce variety of trades, so
tliat too many may not be employed on any one to the injury of private
industry. An extensive market and the highest prices are sought.
Forty per cent, of the jn-isoners are ignorant of a trade on entry. To
impart to these a trade and the power of self help, if they have the
requisite ability and stay long enough in prison, is the principal work.
This result is arrived at by improving the prisoner's morals, by scholas-
tic and industrial instruction, and by the whole prison treatment.
(2) The several industries in the Bavarian prisons are conducted by
their respective administrations. When prison-labor is given to con-
tractors, another authority is placed between the administration and
the prisoner, which cares only for making the greatest profit out of
the prisoner's work.' Not only is discipline thereby interfered with; but
the character of the iiunishment is changed and its purpose is placed in
jeopardy. From the disciplinary and penitentiary ])oiut of xiew, the
giving of prison labor to contractors is condemned in Bavaria, even
though the profit derived therefrom maj- be greater than if the adminis-
tration carried it on.
■ The i)roportiou of prisoners who, on entering prison, are ignorant of a
trade is 29 per cent. It is made a special ol)ject to impart a trade — and
so to teach the art of self-help — to all j>risoners who have the necessary
capabilities and whose terms of sentence are long enough to permit it.
(3) In the i)risons of Prussia more than fifty diftereut trades are car-
ried on by the men and ten by the women; a portion of the male pris-
oners are also occupied in farm-work.
The plan commonly adopted in the i)risous of utilizing the labor of
the convicts is that of letting it to contractors; what work shall be
given to contractors is settled by the administration. It has absolute
control in the selection of prisoners for the performance of the work and
over its execution. It is deemed important to have such a number and
variety of trades that, in allotting prisoners their work, due regard may
be had to their trades before admission and also to their capacity. Each
particular branch of industrial labor is, by the regulations, given to one
contractor; the system of "general contracts'' lias no existence in Prus-
sia. The contracts are so made as to exclude all direct relation between
the prisoner and the contractor. It is conceded that the state loses
financially by this system, but is claimed that it simi)lities the adminis-
tration.
About /i per cent, of the inmates have knowledge of some trade on
entry. As it is considered highly important for a prisoner during his
imprisonmont to Icaiii how to lielp himself on his liberation, it is made
a spj'ciiil object to teach hitn a trade, if he had not learned one before.
In addition to scliool instruction and ai)prenticeshii) to a trade, he is
bound, in order to learn tlie art of self-help, to keep himself strictly
clean, take due e;ii<'. of his clothes, see to the cleanliness Of his cell and
all utensils, and lo the ])i'o]>er oi'der of his bed.
(1) Saxony, om- of Hk^ most industrial (;ountiies, i)roduces in her i)ris-
ons almost all the, din'erent articles of industry and trade. 'J'he work is
]»artly given to contractors, avIio are entirely dependent on the adminis-
tration of the ]>enitentiary, and is ]>artly managed by the latter itself on
its own a(;count. The system of giving the work to contractors, who
are in entire dependence on the administration, has the preference, be-
cause, as it is thought, the oflieeis camiot be at the same time good
PRISON LABOR GERMANY ITALY MEXICO, ETC. 71
tradesmen and good officers, and because the interests of the two would
be opposed and conflictiug. The profits of the prisoners' worlc cover
from about one-third to one-half of all the prison expenses.
(5) Besides the necessary work done for the prison itself, there are
carried on in the prisons of Wiirtemberg some fifteen to twenty different
trades by the men, and eight or ten by the women. Both industrial sys-
tems find place — that of letting the labor to contractors and that of
directing it by the administration. The opinion is held that preference
should be given to the one or the other, according to the nature of the
work.
More than half the prisoners, when received, have a knowledge of
some trade. As far as possible, the prisoner is put at the same trade in
l)rison at which he worked before, or he is taught some other, selected by
himself, of those carried on in the prison. The same is true of those
who had not learned a trade before their imprisonment.
§ 0. In the penitentiary system of Italy there is no labor bearing an
exclusively penal character. It is sought to give to the industrial edu-
cation of the prisoners the turn which seems best suited to them, and
to impart the trade most easily mastered. Labor has no other aim in
the Italian prisons than to overcome the natural propensity to idleness
in the criminal, to accustom him to a life of activity and hardshix),
and to giv^e him the means of obtaining an honorable livelihood.
The industrial arts mostly practised in the penitentiaries are those of
the shoemaker, carpenter, blacksmith, and weaver, and in the bagnios
the prisoners are made agriculturists, laborers in the salt-deposits, and
workers in cotton, hemp, &c. Until 1808, the industries of the prisons
were managed by the administration. Since that time, as an experi-
ment, the contract-system has been introduced into eleven prisons.
The question, Which is the best of these two systems? is so compli-
cated and difficult that the administration is unwilling to pronounce
an opinion till it has made further trial of each.
§ 7. Penal labor does not exist in Mexico. The sentiment of the com-
missioners who prepared the report for the congress is opposed to such
labor, first, because it does not contribute to the moral improvement of
the prisoners ; and, secondly, because, to render it effectual, it would
be necessary to use actual violence, which always humiliates and de-
grades those who suffer it.
The contract-system is not found in the prisons of Mexico.
It is considered very important that during their confinement prisoners
should learn some trade that may enable them to earn their livelihood,
as the chief reason why they relapse into crime is that, after they have
served their time, they do not find any work ; and the want of this re-
duces them to miserj^ and leads them to commit fresh offenses.
§ 8. In the penitentiary establishments of the Netherlands unpro-
ductive or merely penal labor is unknown. Industrial labor, the only
kind in use, is everywhere directed by the administration. But both
systems of labor, the contract-system and the system by which the labor
is utilized on account of the state, have place.
Taking the whole country together, it is believed that about one in
four will correctly represent the proportion of prisoners without a trade
at the time of commitment. It is regarded as a matter of the highest
importance to impart to prisoners during their incarceration the power
of self-help, and this result is diligently sought by teaching them, to
the utmost extent possible, some useful calling.
§ 9. Industrial labor alone is pursued in the prisons of Norway, and
it is managed exclusively by the administration. Many prisoners learn
72 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
a trade while in prison. Eflort is made to train them to liabitvS of in-
dustry, and it is constantly set before them that, of all the causes of
crime, idleness is one of the most prolific.
§ 10. In Russia, a marked difference between different kinds of labor
is beginning to show itself. Industrial work, which scarcely existed in.
times past, is now making great i^rogress, owing to the advantages it
offers to the prisoner, who sees that he can thereby best escape relapse.
Penal labor alone cannot, it is held in liussia, have a beneficial influ-
ence. This is clearly proved in Siberia, where the number of escapes is
counted by thousands. An intense hatred of the authorities and a strong
desire of vengeance are the result when penal is not accompanied by
industrial labor, which latter is the sole means of reformation. Industrial
labor has produced good results in Eussia oidy when let to contractors.
It is now a question whether penal labor shall npt be let in the same way.
It is held that the administration shou-ld not interfere with its direct
duties by the care of commercial undertakings.
A thoroughly organized bureau of statistics has but just been estab-
lished by the ministry of justice. It is therefore impossible at present
to give the exact proportion of prisoners who are without a trade when
committed 5 but it is certainly more than one-half. To impart the
knowledge of a trade to prisoner ignorant of such knowledge is a
special point in the reforms now projected. To give him the power of
self-help is regarded as of the very highest importance, since peniten-
tiary science, in its whole scope and essence, is but a struggle against
the tendency to relapse.
§ 11. There is no penal labor in the prisons of Sweden as contradis-
tinguished from that which is industrial. In the associate i)risons for
men, most of the prisoners are occupied in cutting granite for build-
ings, for pavements, &c. In one prison a part of the inmates are en-
gaged in cutting up pine-wood for matches, another part in making
fine joiners' work. In still other prisons, linen and woolen cloths and
blankets are manufactured, as well as all the garments and bedding for
the prisoners and a part of the clothing for the army. The women are
engaged in making textile fabrics, in all sorts of sewing and binding, in
glove-m.iking, &c. In the cellular ymsons various kinds of laborare per-
formed bj^ the men, such as tailoring, shoe-making, joiners' work, &c. ;
and by the women, weaving, sewing, knitting stockings, &c. Kecently
the manufacture of match-boxes has been their j)rincipal employment,
industrial labor has the elfcct to give the prisoners habits of order and
diligence, arul to render the violent more tractable.
All the industrial labor in the associate<l prisons is let to contract-
ors, excei>t what is done for the prisons themselves. Nevertheless, the
opinion is hehl that, to secure the best results in respect of moral
reformation, all the industries should be under the direction and control
of the ])ris()n admiiiistration its(^lf, and not tiiat of contractors.
In Sweden the inhabitants of the towns form oidy 12 per cent, of the
total pojMihition. Jn the country men aie cliietly farm-laborers or
miners. Tiic conscciuciice is tiiat only a small ])roi)ortion of prisoners
had leariKMl a tiMdc juior to their committal — not more, indeed, tlian 10
per cent. To jiut the prisoner in ])oss('ssi(m of a ti'ade, by which he
may earn an iioncst Ii\ ing after his rch'ase, sp<^cial trade-masters, dur-
ing recont years, hav(^ Ix'cn employed to give tlie nec(%ssary instructions
in the c<rlhilar prisons. J*'ui(her measures in this direction Avill be
adoj)ted ;it an eaily <lay. It is in contemplation to grant the greater
I)art of Ills e;(i-nings to every prisoner who, while in prison, has learned
PRISON LABOR NORWAY PRUSSIA SWEDEN, ETC. id
and worked at a trade capable of supporting biui. It is believed that
this plan will be effective iu the reformation of numbers of criminals.
§ 12. The distinction between penal and industrial labor is made iu
the Swiss prisons by law only in the cantons where there still exists the
system of the old hard-labor prisons, in which a certain class of prisoners
are subjected to public labor, viz, iu sweeping the streets, making roads,
diking rivers, &c. This distinction is not made in the prisons in which
the reformation of the prisoner is proposed as the end. From twenty to
thirty of the more common and more useful trades are taught iu the
Swiss prisons.
Industrial labor in the prisons of Switzerland is managed by the
administration itself. The attempts which have been made in some
prisons to let the labor to contractors for a fixed daily sum have been
very speedily abandoned. Orders are received iu the penitentiaries.
The raw material is furnished by the administration or by those who
order the work ; the tools belong to the establishment. The keepers,
who act at the same time as foremen, superintend the work and calcu-
late the value of the workmanship and of the raw material employed.
Account is taken iu this calculation of the prices-current. Everywhere
they endeavor to deliver merchandise carefully manufactured ; and thus,
as a general thing, the industrial products of prisons are in good repute.
Preference is given in the modern penitentiaries to the management of
the administration over that of contractors in the interest of peniten-^
tiary training. The administration, being supreme, can introduce a
greater variety of industries, and suit to these latter the different apti-
tudes presented by the prisoners. The consequence of the distributiou
of the prisoners on a larger number of industries is that each branch is
restricted to a relatively small number of workmen, and hence free labor
has no occasion to fear an injurious competition. The endeavor is made
to create a demand for the products of prison labor rather by the excel-
lence and solidity of the manufacture than by the cheapness of the
price. Were it otherwise, the penitentiaries, which ought to be at the
same time industrial schools, would be turned aside from their proper
end. In Switzerland it is found that penitentiary training is incom-
patible with the system of letting the labor of the prisoners to contractors.
It is the administration alone that can feel an interest iu teaching a
trade to every prisoner during his stay in prison, so that at the time of
his liberation he may be independent and able to gain au honest living.
The number of prisoners not having a regular business at the time
of their commitment is relatively considerable. Nevertheless, the ten-
dency is shown to be toward a diminution, if comparison is made between
the results of statistics for the last twenty years in the penitentiary of
St. Gall. This belongs evidently to the progress of civilization.
Of criminals committed to the Swiss prisons, about 50 per cent, make
no claim to have learned a trade ; and, of the 50 per cent, who do so claim,
there is scarcely a fourth part who can produce a respectable piece of
workmanship. These facts clearly show that the want of a trade is not
without its influence in the law which controls the causes of crime.
Hence it is sought iu all the peniteutiaries — particularly in those more
recently built and organized upon a rational plan — to give a trade to the
prisoners, and above all to juvenile delinquents, who have to undergo
an imprisonment of one or several years. In all the peniteutiaries
it has been remarked that numbers of the prisoners acquire in a
short time the ability to do that which free workmen would be able to
execute only after a long apprenticeship. Apprenticeship to a trade
which requires a certain degree of intelligence, and is, at the same time,.
74 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
to the taste of the prisoner, is one of the principal agencies in reforming
him. Without industrial labor of this kiud, no satisfactory result can
be expected from a penitentiary system, and relapses ^Yill be inevitable.
A trade learned in the establishment is held to be worth more, as re-
gards the support and succor of the prisoners, than a patronage society.
It is well understood in the cantons somewhat advanced in i)enitentiary
science that it is important, in order to prevent relapses, not only to
make the prisoner an able workman, but also to teach him during his
incarceration to help himself. In this view, there have been introduced
in most of the prison regulations arrangements by which zeal and dili-
gence in labor and the habit of saving are stimulated. The scale of the
])€culium rises in many of the establishments with the augmentation ot
labor. In the better organized penitentiaries the further effort is made
to attain this result by a careful apprenticeship to the trade chosen by
the prisoner, by making him acquainted with the nature of raw mate-
rials, the places from which they are obtained, and their market value ;
also, with the tools and machines employed, the price-current of the
articles manufactured, and the manner of calculating the value of
the workmanship. The prisoners are more or less associated with
the administration through their industrial labors. If by their good
conduct and their aptitudes they come at length to deserve the
necessary degree of confidence, they are called to fnltill the functions of
foremen. There is thus afforded to every prisoner the opportunity of
developing and manifesting his power of initiative. Technical works
and journals are placed in the hands of the workmen on different
branches of industry. Writings of the character of Franklin's Poor
Eichard afford material assistance in this system of penitentiary educa-
tion.
§ 13. All the labor done in American prisons from which revenue is
derived is of the kind known as industrial, in contradistinction from
penal, which does not exist among us. But there is scarcely any kind
of industrial labor which does not find a place in the prisons of the
United States. In Alabama and Texas the convicts build railroads, in
Mississippi they raise cotton, in Tennessee and New York they work
mines ; in many of the States they cultivate gardens or do farm-work.
But the prison employments are generally mechanical, and especially
deal with work in wood, leather, and the Tuetals, though stone- work is
also done on a large scale where prisons are building. This was formerly
so common an occupation for American convicts that "hammering
stone" becameacommontermfor imprisonment. Quarrying stone for sale
or for making (piicklime is much ]>ractised in the great prisons of Joliet
(Illinois,) and Sing-Sing (New York,) the largest in the country. At
the Auburn ])rison, agricultural tools are extensively manufactured ; in
the (Jliio stato-i)rison nuiiiy convicts are employed as saddlers, wheel-
wrights, and blacksmiths; in the cellular prison at Thiladelphia, (the
eastern ])enitcntiary,) the ern])l()yments, being pursued in the cells, are
maiidy sedentary, such as shoemaking, weaving, and the ligliter kinds
of wood-work ; in Massac^husetts ornamental iron-work, brushmaking,
shoemaking, and sewing by means of the sewing-imu^hine are common
prison employnnuits. In tlio Maine state-prison, the warden, being a
carriagcMMiikcr, has introdiKH'd that branch of industry; in the prison
of Northern New ^'o^k, at Danncniora, a, grcMit iron min<>, furnishes ore,
whi(;h is sinclte*!, Corgcd, and wrought into nails by the (convicts ; in the
Mi(;hig;in state prison, at one time, tanning hiatinu- was largely prac-
tised ; in the Detroit House of <l()ri<>ction chair-making has been the
PRISON LABOR UNITED STATEtS ENGLAND IRELAND. 75
thief industry. In fact, there is scarcely any mechanical occupation
that has uot been carried on in some one or more of our prisons.
In general, the labor of the convicts is hired by contractors at a fixed
sum per dciy, and this varies from a few cents to something above a
dollar a day, the highest contract wages being paid at the Massachusetts
prison. In a few of the prisons, perhaps a tenth part of the whole
number, the whole prison labor is managed by the prison administra-
tion, and in nearly all vsome part of the labor is so managed, especially
where the building or enlarging of the prison is going on. It requires
great skill and business capacity in the head of a prison to manage its
industries, and for this reason such management is extremely liable to
failure. On the other hand, the contract system often introduces moral
and financial corruption, injures discipline, and demoralizes the convicts.
A few years ago the expenses of nearly all our state-prisons exceeded
their earnings f but a change has been going on in this respect, and
there is now fully a fourth part of them that earn more than they expend.
Every one of the six ISTew England States reports a profit from its state-
prison, ranging from $20,000 a year in Massachusetts to $1,200 in
Connecticut ; and the excess of earnings over expenses in the six prisons
(containing an average of some 1,100 convicts) was last year above
$39,000. With a smaller number of convicts than this, Ohio shows an
excess of earnings amounting to more than $40,000. Under skillful and
honest management, all our state-prison convicts might perhaps earn
their own support and $30 a year besides ; but two-thirds of them, and
perhaps three-fourths, fall far short of this. In the eastern peniten-
tiary, of Philadelphia, with about 600 convicts, the annual deficit, in-
cluding oflBcers' salaries, is nearly $60,000, or $100 for each convict; in
the three great prisons of New York it averages more than $50 for each
convict; in Maryland it is about $30 for each convict, and so on. In the
county and district prisons very few of the convicts support themselves
by their labor, but the Boston House of Correction, the Rochester Peni-
tentiary, the Albany Penitentiary and the Detroit House of Correction
are self-sustaining, and the two last-named prisons earn each a consider-
able surplus every year. The net cost of supporting all the prisons
above their earnings must be nearly $3,000,000 a year for the whole
country, since there are 38,000 prisoners, and the average annual cost
of each one abo^se his earnings cannot well be less than $80.
§ 14. Penal labor, except so far as oakum-picking may belong to that
category, is not used in the convict-prisons of England. It has for
many years been an established principle in English convict-prisons to
endeavor to instil into the convicts habits of industry, to develop their
intelligence by employing them on industrial labor, and to facilitate
their entering the ranks of honest industry on their discharge, by giv-
ing them facilities for acquiring a knowledge of trades. These objects
are fortunately conducive to another very desirable result, viz., that of
making the prisons self-supporting in various degrees ; some of them
doing an amount of labor the value of which more than covers the cost
of their maintenance.
The gross cost for maintaining the convict establishments in England
during the financial year 1871 was £313,633, and in the same period
the earnings of the convicts amounted to £228,244, or £22 19s. i^d. per
head on the average number. The net cost of the prisons, after deduct-
ing the value of the prisoners' labor, amounts only to £85,389, or £8 10*.
per head.
The contract system is not in existence in the English convict-prisons,
the industries being managed wholly by the administration.
76 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
lu the county and borougb prisons, great prominence, as a rule, is
given to penal labor, such as the tread-inill, crank, shot-drill, oakuni-
picking, stone-breaking, &c. In a few, industrial labor is well organized,
and its products go far towards defraying the ordinary expenses of the
establishments; but in general the earnings of prison labor are exceed-
ingly moderate.
§ lo. The labor-system in the Irish convict prisons is substantially the
same as that in the English prisons of the same class, except that at the
intermediate prison at Lusk, to which there is nothing corresponding
in the English convict system, the men are mostly engaged in farm-
work.
CHAPTER VII.
SANITARY CONDITION OF PRISONS.
§ 1. The system of drainage in the Austrian prisons leaves little to
be desired. The water-supply is reported as always sufficient in quan-
tity, and for the most part good in quality. In the southern provinces,
during the hot season, as the water in many prisons is supplied from
cisterns, it is not as good as might be wished. In such prisons a modi-
cum of vinegar is sui)plied to the prisoners, to be mixed with the water.
Most of the prisons are well ventilated. The cells are thoroughly
cleansed and painted every year. The corridors are cleaned daily and
the floors scrubbed with sand and water at least once a month. The
cleansing and disinfecting of water-closets take place every day. Per-
sonal cleanliness is rigorously exacted. The body linen is changed
weekly and the bed linen monthly. The prisoners must take at least
four baths a year. The collective prisons are furnished with portable
water-closets ; the cellular have in each cell a fixed closet, which stands
under a ventilator reaching to the roof. The dormitories and cells are
lighted by gas or oil, mostly the latter. The heating of the-prisons is
done partly by iron stoves, partly by hot air, with necessary precautions
for keeping a sufficient quantity of moisture in the atmosphere. The
bedsteads are generally of wood ; iu some cases, however, of iron.
The bed is of straw, with pillow of the same or of African forest hair;
two sheets, and one or two blankets, according to the season. The bed
for the sick is the same, but the linen is finer, and it has a cotton cover-
let. i«Iine hours are given to sleep. The remaining fifteen are divided
thus: Keligious services, one and one-half hours; meals, exercise, and
rest, two and one-half hours ; labor, ten and one-half to eleven hours ; at-
teiMlance at school, (which is taken out of the hours for labor for those
who frequent the lessons,) two hours. tSick ])risoners are placed in the
iiifirniaiy or hospital, and cared for according to the doctor's orders by
nurses taken from among the prisoners who show themselves worthy of
such confidence; but tlios<^ prisoners who have only slight ailments are
tr(!ated in tlieir rooms or cells. Insane prisoners are taken to the public
Innatie, asylum. The diseases most fre<iuent ai'o those of the respira-
tory and digestive organs and of the skin and cellular textures. The
average nuudier of sick during the years ISTO and 1871 did not vary
much from (J per cent. The, death-i-at*'. in ]»risons lor sentences ex-
ceeding a year Wiis .'{A p<'r e^'ut., while in prisons to which the sen-
tences w<!re foi' less lliait :i year, it scarcely exceeded one-half of one
I)er cent.
§ 15. The sanitary state of the Belgian i)risous is reported good. The
PRISON LABOR AUSTRIA BELGIUM 77
drains for waste-water and night-soil are cleansed every week by a
strong current of water rushing through them, so that no emanations
dangerous to health can ever issue tlierefrom. Water is furnished in
amplest supply and of good quality.
The ventilation and heating of the cells are eifected in the following
manner : The apparatus for heating is placed in the cellar. The fire is
made in the center of a double cylinder filled with water, which forms
the boilers for its propulsion. From the upper part of each of these
boilers two perpendicular pipes ascend into the principal ventilating
conduits, and conduct the hot water directly into a special reservoir
placed in the draught-chimney, appropriated to each apparatus. Thi« res-
ervoir is fed by six pipes, which traverse horizontally each range of
cells, returning afterward, by the same passage, to the principal appa-
ratus. Two pipes, filled with hot water, thus pass into all the cells.
They are placed in a horizontal conduit running along the floor, close
to the exterior wail. These conduits, covered with a plate of perfo-
rated iron, form for each cell a little reservoir of heat. Thus the ca-
loric is utilized just where its action is required, since it is precisely in
the cells that it diseugages itself, supplying each with an equal quan-
tity. Its center of radiation is in the cell itself. Let us examine now the
mode of introducing fresh air. This introduction is twofold. In the first
place, there is inserted in the window a ventilator of 30 centimeters
(about 12 inches) in height and 44 centimeters (equal to 17^ inches) in
breadth, through which the fresh air is introduced directly into the
cell, without having come in contact with the heat-pipes. Secondly, at
one of the extremities of the iron plate which covers the conduits from
the hot-air furnace is left an opening, which allows the heat to circulate
in the cells. The opposite side of the plate corresponds to an opening
made in the thickness of the exterior wall, by which the pure air from
outside penetrates into the reservoir, and so into the cells. A valve is
fitted to this last opening, by which the prisoner can regulate the intro-
duction of air, and by the same means can increase or diminish the
heat of the cell. Let it be carefully noted that the reservoir of which
we have just spoken, as well as the introduction of fresh air, is on a
level with the floor. The vitiated air is drawn oft" by a conduit placed
in the thickness of the wall on the opposite side from that on which air
and heat enter. This conduit, at its upper extremity, leads into a great
l)ipe, which runs horizontally under the roof, discharging its contents into
a vertical chimney, at the bottom of which is situated the reservoir
which receives the hot water of the furnace, whose smoke-pipe also tra-
verses the chimney. This system of ventilation works naturally and
without mechanism of any kind. An active ventilation incessantly pu-
rifies the diiferent parts of the penitentiary establishment, throughout
which there is always difl'used a fresh and agreeable atmosphere. A
cleanliness the most minute is continually maintained. The dailj' clean-
ing of the premises, the varnishing of the pavement of the cells bj'
means of a special process, and the waxing of the floors and the pave-
ments of the galleries have made it possible to give up washing with
water, wdiich is attended with great inconvenience. The walls of the
cells, galleries, &c., are washed of a stone-color at the beginning of
every year, and partially whenever it becomes necessary to remove
spots or stains. No deposit of dirt or dung is allowed within the in-
ciosure of the establishment, and all necessary measures are taken to
have the rain-water speedily carried off from the premises. In summer,
fumigations are made every morning. They are less necessary rn winter,
and are, consequently, less frequent during that season of the year.
78 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
To iDsnre personal cleanliness on the part of the prisoners the hair is
required to be kept short ; whiskers, mustache, &c., are forbidden.
The men are shaved twice each week. The prisoners are required to
wash their feet once a week. Every two months in winter, and once a
month in summer, they are required to take a full bath. The body linen
is changed every week.
As regards the arrangement of the water-closets, two good systems
are in use — movable vessels and fixed seats, with a pressure of water.
The cells are lighted with gas ; two stop-cocks are fitted to the lighting
apparatus — one in the cell, under the control of the prisoner; the other
on t\fe outside, under the control of the keeper.
The use of the hammock has been given up, having- been replaced in
the cellular prisons by an iron table-bedstead. This bedstead is folded
up during the day, contains the bedding, and serves as a table. The
bedding consists of a mattress, a bolster, two cases for the mattress,
two bolster- cases, two a\ oolen blankets, and two pairs of sheets. The
mattress and the bolster are made of sea-weed.
The infirmary occupies a part of the building at some distance from
the- cells, and the sick are distributed into spacious cells, well aired and
comfortably warmed. These cells have a capacity of 40 cubic meters,
and are provided with the necessary furniture and with clothing suited
to the condition of the sick. The dietary is regulated according to a
special tariff. The hygienic service leaves nothing to be desired. A
cleanliness the most minute, a ventilation active and continual, frequent
fumigations, the change of linen and of bedding — in a word, all desira-
ble attentions are accorded to the sick. Independently of the assidu-
ous attentions of which the sick are made the object, they are regularly
visited, at least once an hour, and can, at anytime, call upon the nurses
by meaus of a signal, whose movement reaches to each bed. Prisoners
seriously sick have watchers, and all the necessary measures are taken
that they receive the attentions required by their situation.
The proportion of the sick for all the prisons of the kingdom is 2.74
per cent. ; the average death-rate is 1.77 per cent.
§3. The food given to the prisoners in the penitentiaries of Denmark
is healthy, clean, and sufficient, but i)lain. Dinner is the principal
meal. The prisons are dry and airy, and in no private house is greater
cleanliness found. During the last three years, the proportion of sick
prisoners has been : Men, 2.11 per cent ; women, 2.13. During the same
period, the death-rate on the total average number of prisoners was:
Men, 1.75; women, 1.70.
§ 4. The central administration of France attaches great importance
to the hygiene of the prisons, and it takes special pains to free them
from every cause of humidity. Even where the buildings which serve
for iuiprisoiimeut are not its own property, it reserves to itself an abso-
lute right of control, as well as of preliminary approval, of all construc-
tions and i('p;iirs Jippertaining to them. It has the power to insure,
and it do<'S insurer encctively, that sanitary precautions are never neg-
lected. Water is siqiplicd in abundiince, and, for the most part, of
excellent ([uality. 'J'Im; ventilation of tin' i)ris(»ns is made the object of
a very speiMal attention, and is eU'ected by means of diaught chimneys,
whieli cause the nii;isms to esciipe ;md fiicilitate the reiu'wal of the aii'.
^J'o insute, cleanliness in the prison buildings, the regulations ])rescribe
that the Moors of the sevia-al stories, especially for {ipaituu'uts in com-
mon, except the inlirmary, be, as fiir as i)ossibIe, <'overed with cement
or Httu;co,' in j)r<'fereiice to lliigging, tiles, or i)l;inks. The walls and
ceilings ai-e re<|uire<l to be carefully plastered ;ind painted with oil, or
PRISON HYGIENE DENMARK FRANCE BADEN. 79
at least waslied with lime. These precautions, whose aim is to facili-
tate the maiutenauee of cleanliness, are completed by official measures,
whose daily or i^eriodical exaction is placed in charge of the contractor
of each establishment where the industries are managed by contract.
These measures are specified in the contract. They consist principally
in frequent and repeated sweepings, washings, and cleanings, as well
as in fumigations and in the annual whitewashing of all the buildings.
The means of securing the personal cleanliness of the i^risoners are
of two kinds. The one, as the daily toilet, the bath, the washing of
the feet, and the removal of the beard and long hair of the men, is ap-
plied directly to the individual. The other has for its object the linen
and the clothing provided for the prisoners' use. They are both as ex-
tensive as i^ossible, and are made the subject of numerous and detailed
rules in the conditions of the contract and the regulations of the prisons.
The position and structure of the water-closets are made a constant
study of the administration, and improvements are gradually intro-
duced wherever it is iiracticable. The prisons are generally lighted
with oil, though in some cases with gas. They are commonly heated
by stoves ; some by hot-air furnaces ; but these latter have not proved
a great success. Iron bedsteads having been found preferable to all
others, they are the only kind now purchased for the prisons of France.
The old wooden bedsteads are fast disappearing, and will soon become
a thing of the past. The complete bed of each able-bodied prisoner
consists of an iron bedstead, a mattress or jiaillasse, (the former in all
central prisons,) a bolster, two sheets, and one coverlet in summer and
two in winter. The beds for the sick are larger and of better quality,
and are provided each with a pillow and curtains. They have also both
a mattress and a i^aillasse. As a general rule, twelve to thirteen hours
are given to labor, (the number cannot exceed that exacted of free la-
borers ;) two to two and one-half to meals and exercise in the open air ;
and nine to sleep. In the great prisons sick prisoners are treated in
the establishment, whatever may be the nature or gravity of their dis-
ease. In the minor departmental establishments, the trivial cases are
treated in the prison itself; the more serious ones, in the hospital of
the place where they are situated. The sanitary system of the central
prisons is organized in a manner the most complete. A physician, often
resident in the establishment, is attached to each. The infirmaries are
arranged in the best possible manner. A special dietary is accorded to
the sick, agreeably to the prescriptions of the physician and the condi-
tions of the contract. A dispensary, i)rovided with all necessary medi-
cines, is organized in each central iHnson, and an apothecary is charged
with preparing the prescriptions. Affections of the digestive and res-
piratory organs and fevers furnish half — often two-thirds — of the in-
mates in the prison-hospitals. Imprisonment very generally produces
a lack of blood, which favors the development or increases the gravity
of certain diseases, such as consumption and scrofula. The average
number of prisoners in the hospitals of the central prisons was, in 1868,
4 per cent, of men and 5 of women. The average death-rate in the
same class of jjrisons in the same year was : Men 3.05 per cent. ; women,
3.80.
§ 5. The five German states represented in the congress reply as fol-
low^s :
(1) The prisons of Baden are represented as healthy, being commonly
built on a dry soil ; but they have no special system of sewerage.
Water is furnished in sufiQcient quantity and of good quality. The ven-
tilation is reported good. The cells and corridors are cleaned daily.
80 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
Scrupulous atteution is everywhere given to cleanliness, iusomuch that
trades inconsistent with it are not practised. The prisoners have always
a full supply of water in their cells. On entrance, each prisoner is
washed in his w^hole person and has his hair cut. The daily ablution
of hands and face is required, and every one must have twelve foot-
baths and four baths of the entire person per year. They have clean
linen weekly, and their outer garments and bed-clothes are washed as
often as may be found necessary. They are shaved every week, and
their hair is cut as often as needful. They must wash all vessels imme-
diately after using them, and the floors of their cells are scrubbed at
least once every week. The cells are lighted with gas. The prisons are
heated in a variety of ways : by hot air, by steam, or by stoves of iron or
earthenware. Each jmsoner has a wooden or iron bedstead ; a mattress,
of straw, sedge, or varec ; a bolster, of the latter substance ; two sheets;
and one or two counterpanes. The sick have, in addition, cushions, &c.
The general distribution of time, without minute accuracy, is ten hours
for work, nine and one-half for sleep, and the remaining four and one-half
for meals, exercise, religious services, and school. The sick are cared
for in special cells, or in common hospitals when their complaints are
serious enough to require it. The most common diseases are those of
the stomach, scrofula, and the maladies consequent thereupon. An aver-
age of (say) 5 per cent, of the prisoners are under the doctor's care,
and the death-rate ranges from 1 to 2 per cent.
(2) Bavaria does not claim a good system of sewerage for all her pris-
ons, but in those of recent construction great atteution has been jiaid
to this matter. The prisoners receive, three times a day, fresh water,
generally of a good quality, for drinking and washing. The x^rison-
rooms are, for the most part, well ventilated by windows. Other systems
have not been found very successful. AVork-rooms, sleeping-rooms, and
corridors are swept daily, washed weekly, and painted yearly. Prison-
ers must wash the face and hands, clean the mouth, and comb the hair
every morning; must take a foot-bath each week or fortnight, and a
full bath several times in the year ; and must be shaved once a week,
and have their hair cut when necessary. Different kinds of water-closets
are used. In the cellular prison at Nilrnberg there are fixed closets
made of cast-iron, which, by means of water-pipes, are cleaned three
times every day ; the bend or neck which connects the closet with the
refuse-pipe remains always full of water, and thereby shuts off all sewer-
gas. By means of the water all the matter is carried off, and falls into
a roservoir at some distance, whence again the licjnid part is drained off
into a stream. This arrangement works well. In some other prisons,
liowever, the arrangements are far from perfect,, especially where during
the night movable closets are put into the bedrooms. Hot air, hot
water, and stoves are the several modes of heating the prisons. The
bed consists of: a bedstead of wood or iron, a straw mattress witli a
tick of unl)leachcd coarse linen, a pillow of the same material, two
sheets, a l)lanket of good sheep's wool, and in winter two. The most
frequent fonns of disease are those belonging to tlie respiratory and
•ligestive (organs. Four per cent, represents the average of the sick
and 2 per cent, tlic average death-rate.
{'.j) In Prussia the greatest care is taken to secure a good system of
sewerage for tlie i)risons. 10 very where an abundance of water is sui>-
j)lied, and in the niajoriiy of prisons it is of good (jnality. All prisons
built within the last forty years have been furnislied with an effe<!tive
Hystcm of artificial ventilation, which is generally connected with the
heating-apparatus. The prisons are kept scrupulously clean, and, as far
PRISON HYGIENE BAVARIA PRUSSIA SAXONY, ETC. 81
iis possible, free from vermin. As regards the means of securing the
personal cleanliness of the prisoners, nothing is left to be desired. Be-
sides daily ablutions, rigorously enforced, the upper part of the body
and the feet must be washed every Sunday and the whole person at
least once a month. Considerable variety shows itself in the water-
closet arrangements. This part of the service does not appear to be in
a perfectly satisfactory condition. The lighting of the prisons is by
gas, petroleum, or oil ; in the common dormitories lights are kept burn-
ing all night. The prisons of recent construction are heated by hot-
water apparatus. The bedsteads are of wood or iron ; the latter in all
modern prisons. The bedding consists of a straw paillasse and pillow,
sheets, and from one to three woolen counterpanes, according to the
season, inclosed in a white or colored case of linen or calico. The in-
firmaries are supplied with hair-mattresses. The hours of labor are
from 5 or C a. m. (according to the season) to 8 p. m., but subject to va-
rious interruptions for meals, rest, exercise, school, and catechising.
The hours of sleep are from 8 p. m. to 5 or G a. m. Hospitals are
found in all the prisons, and are fitted up with everything needed for
the treatment of the sick in the best manner. Light cases are treated
in the ordinary rooms. The diseases most common are pulmonary, in-
testinal, and other forms of consumption ; renal, dropsical, cerebral, and
spinal afiections ; and chronic ailments of the abdominal organs.
Eight per cent, of the prisoners are usually under medical treatment —
half in the hospitals and half in their cells or rooms. The death-rate
is from 2 to 2i per cent, on the average number of prisoners.
(4) In Saxony, from the combined results of science and experience,
prisoners have received, since 1851, conformably to a regulation regard-
ing meals, sufficient and nourishing food. This regulation i)rovides for
a daily variety suited to the season and the promotion of health. For
dinners there are ninety, for breakfasts and suppers, twenty-eight, vari-
eties of dishes. On principle, such food is given to the jirisoner as is
required for the preservation of his life, health, and strength for work.
Requisite medical attention in every respect is given to the prisoners.
The ventilation is arranged in a simple but effective manner. Drainage
(in a technical sense) does not exist, but: a system of sluices removes all
the underground water. To cleanliness the most strict attention is paid,
and it is rigorously insisted on in workshops, dormitories, water-closets,
and clothing ; there is also a regular use of baths. The daily average
of cases of illness is from 1 to 2 per cent.; the annual average of cases
of death is 1 to 3 per cent.
(5) The prisons of Wiirtemberg are provided with a good system of
sewerage. Water, for drinking and other purposes, is found in all the
prisons in sufficient quautity and of good quality. Prisoners are re-
quired to keej) their i)ersons, clothing, beds, worksops, dormitories,
and all other places about the x)risons scrupulously clean. Frequent
bathing of the entire person is exacted. The food provided for the
prisoners is of good quality and sufficient in quantity. The construc-
tion of the water-closets varies with the construction of the i^risons ;
but even the ordinary ones are supplied with a ventilating apparatus
for removing the bad air, and are carefully disinfected. Most of the
prisons are lighted with gas. The bedsteads are of iron or wood.
The bed consists of a straw mattress and bolster, two sheets, one
blanket in summer, and two in winter. In reclusion-prisons the
inmates whose health requires it may have their own beds, and in
the prisons for preliminary detention there is no restriction in this
regard. In prisons of reclusion the hours of work are eleven ; of
H. Ex. 18.J G
82 INTERNATIONAL PKNITENTIARY COXG'RESS.
.sleep, nine. The remaining four hours are given to meals, recreation,
schooling, &c. All the prisons have infirmaries, which are supplied
with everything necessary for the sick; but i)risoners who are only
slightly indisposed are treated elsewhere. The diseased in mind are
removed to a lunatic asylum. The average proportion of sick in the
infirmaries for the last ten years has been from .'3i to 4i per cent., and
the death-rate from li to 2=| per cent. The diseases arii mostly the
same as those which prevail among the free population.
§ 0. The allowance of food in the Italian prisons varies according to
the class of the prison. In the detention-houses the ration is 1 bowl of
soup and ToO grams (1t|: pounds) of bread; in the penitentiaries, the
same quantity of bread and two bowls of souj); in the bagnios, the same
ration of bread and one bowl of soup, with the addition of a i)ortion oi
meat once a fortnight. In the detention-prisons the prisoners are allowed
to procure their own food if so disposed. In penal establishments worked
by contract, and in the bagnios, the prisoners aie allowed to use a por-
tion of their peeuUum m increasing their diet, as they choose. In pen-
itentiaries AYorked by the government the convict who accomplishes
within a mouth a certain amount of work enjoys the next month what
is called the '•' laborer's diet," and if he accom])Iish an extra (luantity
he enjoys what is named the '* reward diet." The laborer's diet is a
daily dish added to the ordinary ration. The reward diet adds to this
an allowance of wine {vln onlinaire) three times a week. In the old pris-
ons ventilation is provided for as best it may be. In the new construc-
tions the best appliances of science are employed. The water-closets
are made movable or fixed, according to the quantity of water necessary
to prevent unhealthy eflluvia. The average death-rate in 1870, as com-
pared witb the average prison-population, was: In the houses of deten-
tion, 2.07 per cent, of males and 1.77 per cent, of females; in the pen-
itentiaries it was r)M) per cent, of men and o.ll per cent, of women ; and
in the bagnios, where only men are admitted, 2.78 per cent. The diseases
most common in the bagnios are fevers and complaints of the lungs and
nervous system ; in the ])enitentiaries, diseases of the lungs and of the
organs of sense.
§ 7. No information was furnished on this subject in the report from
^Mexico, further than the bare statement that it is unnecessary to warm
the prisons of tluit country artificially, on ac<;ount of the mildness of
the climate.
§ 8. In some of the ]»risons of the ^.'etherlnnds, the system of sewerage
still remains in)perfect, but reforms av(i sought to be everywhere intro-
duced. The (luantity of water supplied to the prisoners is without limit,
and the <piality is generally good, but in some localities it is ditlicult and
cxiM-nsiNc^o procure it. ]\iostof the prisons aj'C well ventilated ; where
improvements are still needed, means an^ employed to a(;complish them.
Earnest endeavors are everywhere made to insure the cleanliness of the
prisons, and for the most i>art with satisfactory results. The same is
true as regards the ])ersonal cleanliness of the ])risoners. As regards
the system ol" wat«'r-closets, preference is generally given to inodorous,
portable vessels, with a reservoir outsi<l(i of the building. The i)risons
ar(; commordy lighted by gas or petroleum. JJghls are kept burning in
tlM" iloiinitoiif's (hiring the night. The system of heating varies in dif-
ferent i)risons. I n somw il, is efleeted by hot water or steam, in others by
sU)ves. 'J'he ])risoner's bed is madr of straw; for the sick, of sea-grass
or sea weed. JlamuKxiks were Ibnncily in v(>ry general use, but by
degrees they liave bt'cn rei)lac,ed l»y open bedsteads. Tiu' bed, complete,
consists of ;i mattress and bolster, two sheets, one eoveilet of a coarse
PRISON HYGIENE ITALY \i:T!IERLANDS NORWAY, ETC. 83
material, and one or two blankets, according to tlie temperature of the
season.
There is no general rule regarding the distribution of time. The
hours of labor (including those of school) are ten in summer and nine
in winter, and, of sleep, eight and a half in summer and nine in winter.
The remainder of the time is at the disposal of the prisoner for meals,
rest, study, and reading.
A distinct part of the prison-building serves as an infirmary. In the
cellular prisons, cells of double dimensions are appropriated to the sick.
The medical service is couiined to a military surgeon wherever there is
a garrison; to a civil p'lysician in localities where there is no garrison.
The entire service is under the inspector-general of the medical service
of the army, and is performed in a highly satisfactory manner. The
most common diseases in the prisons, as outside, are diseases of the
chest, especially phthisis. The average of the sick and of deaths it is not
easy to give. It differs a good deal in different prisons, depending on
local circumstances and the class or species of prison. The difference
in the duration of punishments, which is by no means inconsiderable,
exercises a great influence on the i)roportionate number of the sick and
of deaths.
§ 0. A good system of drainage is reported for the Norwegian prisons.
The water-supply is unlimited and of good quality. The ventilation of
the prisons is reported good. Cleanliness, both of the i^risons and
prisoners, is enforced to the utmost practicable extent. The larger
prisons are lighted witli gas; the smaller with oil. In the penitentiary
and most of the district-prisons the rooms are warmed by hot water; in
the other district-prisons by stoves. In the penitentiary, hammocks are
used ; in the other penal establishments, wooden bed-frames ; iu the
district-prisons, both sorts. The bedding consists of mattress, pillow,
sheets, and blankets. The working-time cannot legally exceed fourteen
hours in summer and tea in winter. The actual time employed in
labor is less, varying from twelve and a half hours, as the maximum, to
ten, as the minimum. The hours of sleep are not stated in the report.
Every penal establishment has its own physician. In the district-prison s^
medical assistance is given by the official physician of the district.
§ 10. In the new prison-constructions of Eussia, in spite of the diffi-
culties offered by the climate, the greatest pains are taken to secure
good and effective drainage. In the old prisons, everything connected
with this subject is in a more or less barbarous state. The same thing
is true as regards ventilation. The water-closets are generally primi-
tive. Those used during the day are simply perforated planks above a
pit more or less deep ; for use by night there are portable vessels oi
wood. Efforts are now making to find a method which will unite
economy, cleanliness, and pure air in a severe climate ; but the problem
Is not easy of solution. The prisons are lighted almost everywhere by
tallow candles. They are warmed, for the most part, by stoves. In ex-
ceptional prisons the system of Amossoft' is employed. In this system
tubes for conducting heat unite at a common subterranean furnace or
fire-grate. Other systems have been also tried, but none has yet given
a satisfactory solution of the difficulty as respects cheapness, climate,
security, and other desirable advantages.
In most prisons the prisoners have no bed. They sleep on planks,
ranged side by side, and fixed on stools about three feet from the floor.
The bed, in prisons where it is found, is the same as everywhere else : a
mattress and bolster filled with straw, linen sheets, and a coarse cloth
blanket. The large jirisons have hospitals in which the sick are treated,
84 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
and whicli are well kept. The more comuion diseases are scurvy and
consumptiou. There is not a large proportion of sick prisoners. The
same cannot be said of the number of deaths. This fact is explained
by the kind of life that the prisoners lead before their imprisonment ;
they had been too much addicted to alcoholic stimulants.
§ 11. The situation and drainage of the i^risons of Sweden leave little
to be desired. It is quite common to build them on water-courses. The
water for the prisoners' use is of good quality and the supply without
stint. In the associated prisons there is no apparatus for ventilation ;
in those on the cellular plan it is otherwise. The strictest cleanliness
is enforced. The prisoner, on his admission, has a bath and receives
clean clothes. He changes his linen weekly and his sheets every fort-
night. Frequent bathing is required, especially in summer. Water-
closets are variously constructed, but they are not completely satisfac-
tory. Gas is exceptionally used for lighting, oil and petroleum being
commonly employed for that purpose. The larger cellular prisons are
beated by hot water ; the others, both cellular and associated, by open
grates or stoves. The bedsteads are generally of iron in the associate
prisons ; in the cellular, hammocks are used. The bedding does not
difier materially from that supplied in the prisons of other European
countries. In winter the hours for sleep are from 8 p. m. to G a. m. ; in
summer from 9 p. m. to 5 a. m. Each morning and evening, half an
hour is occupied in washing, in prayer, and in inspection by the officers.
Half an hour is allowed for breakfast, the same for supper, and an hour
for dinner. On Saturday work finishes at 4 o'clock. In winter those
who labor in the oi)en air work as long as it is light. The prisoners in
cells walk for half an hour each day in the court of the prison. They
work at most ten hours per day ; the remainder of their time is spent
in reading and receiving instruction.
In the cellular prisons the sick are commonly attended to in their
cells ; but they have a bed instead of the usual hammock. In serious
cases, or in epidemics, the sick are transferred to a special room which
is found in every cellular prison. In prisons on the associated system
there are intirmaries with spacious and well-ventilated rooms, to which
all prisoners are removed who, from sickness or wounds, are unable to
work. Xo prisoner on the sick-list is allowed to remain in the work-
rooms or in the common dormitories. The most common diseases are
j)ulmonary consumption, aifcctions of the stomach and intestines,
especially among prisoners wlio work in the oi)en air. During summer
scurvy not unfre(]uently prevails. For live years the average of sick
has been, in collective prisons, 4.4 per cent.; in cellular prisons, 4 per
cent. In the same ])eriod the deaths were, in the collective prisonsj .">
I)er cent. ; in cellular prisons, li per cent.
§ 12. In the more recently constructed prisons of Switzerland and in
those which have undergone extensive alterations, the sanitary appli-
ances are sii(;h as the best exi^erience an<l the best science suggest in
regard to (Iraiiiage, wat(n--sui)])ly, ventilation, cleanliness, construction
and arraugeincnt of wat(!r-closets, heating, lighting, beds and bedding,
hospital accoinniodalion, &(;. Jn the others, dcliciencies are iound in
all tlu'sercsjx'cls, varying fiom an aj)i)roach to what humanity and sound
j)oli(;y demand to the altscncii of almost eveiytliing which these good
guides ])oint out as dcsirjible.
§ ].'>. There isno gcMieral scale of ])ri son dietaries in the United States,
and Irom tlu; diversities of climate ami i)r()duction Ihei-e could scarcely
be on(! ; for wliat would be salutary at lioston might be otherwise at
2^cw Orleans or ("harleston. In the Western States fresh moat is much
PRISON HYCilENE SWEDEN SWITZERLAND, ETC. 85
more freely used than on the sea-board ; but iu all our prisons uieat is
much more common tlian in those of Europe, being generally given
twice a day in the state-prisons. Another frequent article of food is
Indian meal, made from maize, and served up in the form of " mush,"
(which is a kind of pudding,) or of "brown bread." This is little used
in Europe, and is not to be highly recommended as a common article of
diet.
The ventilation and drainage of half the American prisons are reason-
ably good; of the other half indifferent or bad ; in many instances very
bad. Probably one-fonrth of all the prisons, and a larger proportion of
the state-prisons and honses of correction, are kept scrupulously clean ;
a great many, particularly among the county jails, are foul and filthy.
Yet most of them are free from sickness, and the death-rate is not
large. It cannot be given with any accuracy, however, for lack of care-
ful statistics. Ln the" cellular prison of Philadelphia, dnring a period of
forty-two years, there were 353 deaths in a total number of 0,4IG per-
sons. As each person probably spent about three years in prison on an
average, this would ,give a death-rate of 353 in 20,000, or 17.65 in a
thousand, less than 2 per cent., which is not very great. Among an
average number of 2,471 prisoners in Massachusetts in 186S, 41 died ; in
1S(]9 the average number was 3,043, and the deaths were 55; in 1870
these numbers were 2,971 and 58 ; in 1871, 3,145 and C8. In an aggre-
gate average population of 11,630 this gives 19.35 for the annual death-
rate per thousand in four years, which, all things considered, is less
than in Penns^'lvania.
§ 14. The sanitary arrangements and condition of the English con-
vict-prisons are reported as good. Xo epidemic or other diseases pre-
vail in these establishments. They are kept iu a high state of cleanli-
ness, and the medical officers are required to examine and report fre-
quently on this point. The average death-rate for the last five years
has been 1.37 per cent, for males and 1.45 for females.
In regard, to the county and borough prisons the same report sub-
stantially was presented to the congress by the government inspectors.
§ 15. The sanitary arrangements in the Irish convict-prisons are re-
ported as excellent," and the condition of the prisons in this regard as
altogether satisfactory. The diseases most prevalent are colds and
mild febrile and puhnonary afi'ections.
C H A P T E R V I I I .
REFORMATORY RESULTS.
§ 1. Public punishment has two objects in Austria : the vindication
of justice and the reformation of the criminal. The sad fact is ac-
knowledged that the efibrts for the moral improvement of prisoners have
not been'attended with good efiect. No proofs exist that prisoners are
made better by their punishment. The proportion of those who relapsed
and were re-convicted during the years i.S68-'70 was: Men, 59 per cent. ;
women, 54 per cent.
§ 2. The execution of punishment in Belgium has in view the double
aim of expiation and reformation ; the latter of these objects is steadily
kept in view and earnestly sought by the administration. It is claimed
to be in proof that in the cellular ]irisons the moral state of the prison-
ers is, in "eneral, better at the time of their discharge than at that of
86 INTEKNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
their entrance. Those who manifest evil inclinations are lew in num-
ber; nearly all have sensibly moditied the sentiments Avith wiiich they
were animated at the time of their commitment. iStill it would seem
that the good resolutions formed in prison yield, to a very great extent,
to the temptations to which the liberated prisoners are afterward ex-
posed in free life. Of the prisoners committed in 1872, 78 i)er cent, had
been in prison before, and had fallen again after their discharge. The
authors of the report made to the congress claim that this result can-
not be charged to the cellular system, since nearly half the i^enitentiary
establishments are still conducted on the congregate plan.
§ 3. The reformation of criminals is made a primary object of their
treatment in Denmark, but though the convict generally leaves the
prison with good intentions, yet his power of resistance often proves too
weak to conquer temptation.
§ 4. The supreme aim of i^ublic i)unishment in France is deterrence,
that is to say, the intimidation of criminals, and the repression of crime
by that means. The moral regeneration of the convicts is considered as
one of the means of action which the state can and ought to employ to
diminish the danger of relapse, but not as the princii>al aim of the pen-
itentiary system. In the case of piisoners sentenced to short terms of
imprisonment it is difficult to obtain favorable reformatory results. On
the contrary, the criminal so im])risoned is apt to become sensibly de-
teriorated. In support of this view, the report states that in France
the proportion of relapses is in inverse ratio to the duration of the pun-
ishment. According to the last official report on criminal justice, of
persons ]>rosecuted for crime, those previously convicted formed 42i per
cent., and of misdemeanants, o7i per cent.
§ 5. The states of the German Empire reporting show the follov/ing
condition of things:
(1) Punishment is the primary aim of iminisoument in Baden, but it
is intended to be so iniiicted as to make it contribute to the reformation
of the imprisoned. Those who leave the prison are generally better
than when they entered it. The proportion of tliose who return to a
criminal course after release is 20 per cent.
(2) In Bavaria, although reformation is looked upon as one great ob-
ject of the prison system, the favorable results desii'ed are not, upon the
whole, obtained. The ])r()})ortion of le-convictions is about 30 per cent.
(3) The i)rincipal aim in Prussian prisons is to satisfy justice, and to
make the ])risoners feel their i)unishment as an expiation of their crime.
At tlie same time, all suitable means are emi)loyed to effect their moral
reroi'imition. Ijfforts are made to give tlu'ni habits of order and work,
and llicir minds are inllaenced by scholastic instruction, s[)iritual conso-
lation, and moial i)re(;epts. Nevertheless, of prisoners sentenced to hard
hil>or, tlic only class with respect to which n^liable statistics exist, GO to
70 per cent, in the whole kingdom are recidivists, that is, persons who.
after their liberation, liave again fallen into crime.
(4) III 8a.\ony reformation is made one of the chief objects of im-
prisonment. The prisoners are in general better on leaving the prison
than wlu'n they entered it. Their promises that they will live honestly
ai'e, in most, «;as('s, not m.u'e em])t.y i)hrases ; and wIkmi some have
failed in their imiposc, of amendment, the fault is mostly to be traced
to existing gencial social <^vils. J'\)r su('C(\sslul warfan^ against these,
liberated ])ris()neis are wajiting in energy.
{~t) The j)rimary object of imi»risoMiiient in Wiirtemlx'rg is jjunish-
mcMit ; yrt it is intended that the ])iinishm('nt shall be so a<lministered
as to ett'ect the mMr;il imniovemenl of tlie ]»risoners. Of the inmates
REFORMATORY RESULTS ITALV MEXICO HOLLAND, ETC. 87
of the prisons*, more than a third — about .'](> per cent. — are there on re-
conviction.
§ G. The administration of the Italian prisons finds it a difficult task
to decide the question whether its penitentiary system answers the end
of reformin<»' the criminal, and whether on discharge the prisoner is
morally better or worse. The relapses into crime scarcely exceed 18 per
cent, on the whole body of criminals ; but, in 1871, of the criminals
sentenced to an imprisonment of more than a year, 28 i)er cent, were
recidivists. (Joncerninj^jthe number of re-convictions, a most important
fact may be gathered from the registered statistics of the administra-
tion relative to the time elapsing between the discharge and the com-
mittal of fresli Clime. From these it is found that of recidivists sentenced
to the bagnios, 27 per cent, relapse within the first year, 10 per cent,
within the first tMo years, and 57 per cent, beyond that space of time.
The re-convictions of those sentenced to the penitentiaries are 37 per
cent, within the first year, 19 per cent, within two years, and 44 per
cent, beyond that laj)se of time ; and among the femnles, 4G percent,
within the first year, KJ })er cent, within two years, and 38 percent, be-
yond that time.
§ 7. Deterrence has been considered in Mexico the primary aim of
I>ublic punishment, thougli the moral reform of the criminal has not been
lost sight of. So far, the prisoners leave their pi-ison-house in a worse
state morally than when they entered it ; but it is believed that the
changes recently made in the penal code will improve this state of things.
§ 8. The aim in the Xetherlands is to make the punishment contribute,,
as tar as possible, to the reformation of prisoners. The proportion of
recidivists given by the (admitted) iu^perfect statistics of the country is,
for the general mass of jtrisons, 25 percent.; for the central (higher)
prisons, 38 per cent.
§ 0. Protection of society by deterring from crime, that is, by intimi-
dation, is regarded in Xorway as the primary end of prisons and im-
prisonment ; but the reformation of the prisoners is also considered a
chief jioint. Of the inmates of the penitentiary, about 39 per cent, are
there on re-conviction. With regard to other prisons, no information is
given in the report. Whether the i>risons have an improving or deteri-
orating effect upon their inmates is a question declared to be difficult
to answer in a satisfactory manner.
§ 10. In Russia, the declared aim of all penal legislation is the reforma-
tion of the inmates of the prisons; but this aim is very far from having
been attained. Indeed, the prisoners are admitted to be worse on their
discharge than on their entry, since the liberated are a pest to the coun-
try. It is impossible to state the proportion of recommitments, for the
want of statistics.
§ 11. The information furnished by Sweden on this subject is given in
the words of the report, as follows :
The legislatioD, as well as tlie reform of prisons, initiated by Kin<; Oscar I, coiu-
meuced in 1840. lu cousquencc, thirty-eight new cellular prisons were built in all the
provinces of the kinj^dom. They have all aimed at the moral reformation of the pris-
oners. But as all those who are sentenced to penal labor for more than two years are
.imprisoned in the larije collective prisons with common dormitories for a large number
of prisoners, and as they work altogether during the day for private contractors, their
amendment has not been fully attained. On the other hand, the cellular prisons are
regarded as not having corrupted the prisoners. Those who have been imprisoned
only in cellular prisons liave not been greatly hindered by their imprisonment from
finding employment in the neighborhood of their home. During the last five j-ears the
numl)er of recidivists has risen on the average to 2S per cent. But since Sweden suf-
fered from scarcity of food in 1866, 1867. and 1868, and conseipieutly it was difficult for
men to iiiul work, an extraordinarv addition was made to the number of crimes against
88 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
property. Hence the percentage of recidivists, before ineutioued, is considerably above
the normal average.
§ 12. For Switzerland, the exact words of the report are also given :
The study of social questions, undertaken by numerous societies of public utility,
and the reports presented in the meetings of the Swiss Society for the Reform of the
Penal System and of Prison Discipline, have enlightened public opinion to such a degree
that the legislative assemblies of most of the cantons are favorable to the propositions
made with a view to the introdnction of penitentiary reform into all our prisons. On
the other hand, public opinion declares itself in favor of expenditures designed to im-
prove the condition of criminals only after the state has sujiplied the country with hos-
pitals, insane-asylums, orphan-houses, schools, «S:c., that is to say, with all needful
establishments dcisigned for the honest poor. In all the cantons where these institutions
are found, the old theory of penal rein-ession, based on vengeance, has given place to
more humane ideas, the responsibility resting on society as regards the causes of crimes
is better understood, and the system introduced into most of the prisons has for its aim
the reformation of the prisoners. It is true that the i^eual codes of many of the can-
tons are based on punishment, intimidation, and expiation. But despite the text of
the codes, which was often written jirior to the reform of the prisons, it is sought in
the penitentiaries to employ agencies which may combine at once repression and refor-
mation. While in some cantons (those of the two inferior groups) the principle of
repression is alone admitted, we see the canton of Ziirich setting a good example by
declaring, in its penal code, October, 1870, that the application of punishment ought
positively to have for its object the reformation of the criminal. This princix)le, which,
some day, will be applied in its whole length and breadth, dates only from yesterday.
Hence we need not be surprised that the country is found in that transitional period
when the principle of intimidation still struggles against the moral reform of crim-
inals. The spirit of vengeance is not entirely extinguished ; it still shows itself when-
ever anj' atrocious crime has just been committed. But the moment of indignation is
transient, which shows that an immense progress has already been realized, and that
, its development proceeds without cessation, in spite of occasional reactionary move-
ments.
The favorable results obtained in the moral reformation of prisoners subjected to
the penitentiary rcgivte of the modern establishments incite the others to a revision of
their penal codes. No doubt there are many criminals and correctionals in whose case
the inlluence of the improved penitentiary system does not make itself felt. As, among
the insane, there are incurable patients, so persons in whom the moral sense has been
completely perverted suffer themselves to be impressed in a penitentiary only by the
evil which they liud there, and show thomsodves iu9ensii>lc to the goo<l which is sought
to be accomplished. On the other liand, the greater number are far tVotu being de-
praved, and the moral force of those who form this class increases in Llie prisons. At
the moment of theirliberation they feel themselves reconciled to society, and they have
the linn intention of regaining, by their good conduct and by honest toil, the esteem of
their fellow-citizens. ]5ut it is not easy for a ])risoner to carry into efl'ect his good reso-
lutions. He has to confront many predjndices, to con<iuer maTiy obstacles, and to
j'csist many temidations, to Avhich ho would sometimes succumb if some charitable
hand were not extended lor his succor.
The jtroportional numb(;r of recidivists can be given only approximately. The sta-
tistics in the different cantons are not made out in a uuilbrm manner. In sfune estab-
1 ishmenf s, account is imtde of all private sentences — police, I'oriectional, and criminal ;;
in others, thej' embrace only those which have been pronounced within the canton or
even notice only the jtunislmuMits undergone in tlie same establishment. The greater
part of tiie (^aulons cxiicl from their territory libeiated prisoners of foreign birth, and
giv(r themselves no furl her tronhhi ;il)()ut them ; so t hat it may happen that- the cantons
whose ]ienitentiaries contain numerous iu)u-reHide,nts of the canton may have fewer
recidivists to lie registered. In spite of the defective state of the statistics, we may
estimate an av(.-rage of ;{() to 45 per cent, as the [troportion of recidivists in cantons
wlieri! the- penitentiary system has math) least ])rogress, and fiom l'.» to 2^y per cent, as
tiiat of the cantons whose penitentiaries are well organizi^d.
§ !.'>. Ill \rr.v i(',w of the prisons of the United States, tiikiiii;- tliose of
all <;hisHes into a('(;oiint, is the r(!rorinatioii of criminals now made the
primary ohject, and, as a matter of iaet, numbers of ])ris()ners leave the
prison no better than they (Mitcred it. .Many are made worse rather than
better; and this is i)arti(;iilarly the ease in the eonnty jails and with
short sent<!n<;ed prisoners in the district prisons. In our best prisons
this is otherwise; but there are very l"ew ofli(;ers who can truly say that
Jheir i)risoii discijiliiie has reformed the comict!^ Any statiMiients made
. PRISON OFFICERS AUSTRIA BELGIUM DENMARK, ETC. 89
regarding the proportion of re-convicted criminals in onr prisons would
only be misleading, owing to the very imperfect state of our peniten-
tiary statistics.
§ 14. Little information is afforded on this subject in the reports sub-
mitted to the congress from England and Ireland.
CHAPTER IX.
PRISON OFFICERS — THEIR QUALIFICATIONS AND TRAINING.
§ ]. It is held by the authors of the report submitted on the part of
Austria that, besides a technical knowledge of their calling, prison-
oflftcers should possess a good general education, and have experience of
life, knowledge of human character, firmness, and a serious and humane
spirit. The opinion is expressed that the greater number of the officers
at present employed in the Austrian prisons are men of this character.
Special training is not provided for this class of public servants. It is
thought that the experience necessary for a prison officer may be best
acquired by actual service in a prison.
§2. In Belgium it is held that the head of a i^enitentiary establish-
ment should be thoroughly acquainted with everything relating to the
moral, disciplinary, economic, and industrial administration. He has,
so to speak, the charge of souls. He must be just, firm, intelligent,
conciliatory; must know men, and especially criminals ; and must pos-
sess, in a high degree, the attribute of probity. Above all, he must be
animated by sentiments profoundly religious, for it is Christian devo-
tion alone that can sustain him in the path of his duty and give him
the force and steadfastness necessary to overcome the obstacles which
will be sure to obstruct his progress. The keepers are moral agents;
they must offer guarantees of morality, intelligence, zeal, and humanity.
Their special service is of a nature to require that they be in the vigor
of their age; that they have good health and a robust constitution:
that they possess an energetic character; and that they have a good
primary education, and, if possible, a knowledge of some one of the
trades taught in the prison in which they serve. Special training-
schools for the subordinate oflicers would be highly desirable, as they
are apt to enter on their functions without the full preparation required
by their mission. A school for keepers has existed foV some years in
the iicnitentiary of Louvaiu. The directors are recruited from the
personnel of the administration, where, in passing through the succes-
sive grades, they have necessarily acquired the requisite knowledge.
Special examinations are a condition precedent of their appointment.
§ 3. Prison officers in Denmark are appointed partly by the govern-
ment, partly by the prison-inspector. Their appointment and discharge
are totally independent of political and all other considerations not
bearing directly on their qualifications and efficiency. There are no
special training-schools for prison officers. It is thought that such
would be too costly for a small couutry like Denmark.
§ 4. The management of penitentiary establishments, it is held in
France, requires technical and administrative knowledge of great
breadth, and ofl'ers, besides, special difficulties, arising out of the com-
plicated organization of the service. It demands a profound knowledge
of business, of ministerial regulations and details, and an unremitting-
application, a quality essentially requisite in all directors. The admin-
90 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
istrator wiio finds himself face to ftiee with a contractor, whoso interests
are directly antagonistic to those of the state, ought to unite an unceas-
ing watchfulness with an intelligent control. The principal duties of
the administrator of penitentiary establishments — such as the organiza-
tion of the prison labor, the examination of tariil's of labor, the mainte-
nance of disciplin-e in the midst of a ])erverted population, the choice
and employment of means to awaken in the prisoners thoughts of re-
pentance and ideas of moral renovation — all these duties, and others
analogous, demand a special aptitude, fortified by an experience more
or less extended. Penetrated with the idea that the direction of the
penitentiary establishments cannot be coutided, without the gravest
risks, to agents who do not otter the most trustworthy guarantees, the
superior administration has established rigid rules to guard against the
bestowmeut of the elevated functions of the service upon agents whose
aptitude and experience would leave the least room for doubt. In the
same order of ideas, it exacts, in the case of all its agents, of whatever
degree, the knowledge demanded by the positions which they are to
fill, and makes their promotion de])endent on conditions of time and
exjjerience, varying according to the importance of the trusts to which
they aspire. In short, to keep out of tlie service of the prisons agents
unable to otier the guarantees desired, a ministerial decree, under date
of the 25th of March, 1SG7, instituted, in the ministry of the interior, a
commission charged with the examination of candidates for employ-
ment in the active service of the central and departmental prisons.
The programme of the required examination comprises the following
points: Writing, grammar, arithmetic, the ])rinciples of accounts, his-
tory, and geography, (principally of France,) general notions of the
penal system and of criminal procedure, general ideas of civil law, the
civil and judicial administration, and the most important provisions of
the laws, decrees, and ordinances relating to the penitentiary regime.
The examination includes, in addition, a written composition. The
result is, that thoi personnel of the prison service is composed, for the
most i)art, of agents, enlightened, capable, and up to the height of the
duties with whicli they are charged. Many of the higher officers unite
to all the aptitudes required in the director of a penitentiary establish-
ment a rare administrative ability and an extensive knowledge of crim-
inality. In the lower ranks of the i^ernonnel^ a majority of the agents
are upright, zealous, and earnestly devoted to their duties.
Tliere do not exist in France schools especially devoted to the educa-
tion of prison officers. The best school in matters of this kiiul is thought
to be tliat of practice and experience.
§ 7). The following summary is offered of the r(^[)orts from the (rerman
states on this snl)j(M;t:
(1) Jn ]>adcn, tlie (|ualities <leemed necessary in a ])rison officer are:
[ntegrity, (h'votion, energy, firmness, kindness, ])liysical and moral
courage, and a calm and brave sj)irit. Tiiese qualities are believed to
be i)0SHessed by the sui^orior and by most of the inferior officers.
Special schools for the education of ])ris()n officers have not been es-
tablished, nor is their establishment recommended, because the work
of prison ollic<'rs can, it is thought, be best learned by i)ractice.
(2) To l)e eligible, to fhe, directorship oi" a ])rison in l>avaria, the can-
didates must have stiulied fhe ])rcscril)ed subjects in ])hilos()phy and
.jurisprud(Mice, and piisscd tlu^ exandnation admilting them to act as
Judges, (yandidates for fhe position ol" i)ljysiciaii, chaplain, or teacher
must have completed the studies <'onnec,ted with their several i)rofes-
sions and undergoin' satisfactoiy examinations. kSpecial schools do not
rUlSOX OFFICKKS (JKRMANV llAf-V MKXHM), JHC. 9l
exist for the ediu-ation micl traiiiiii,;;' of piisuii ollicer.s. Su(;li schools, it
is heki, would be desirable, since miieh harm is done by i^iioraiice in
the treatment of prisoners.
(3) The report for I'russia holds that, besides personal integrity,
sufficient ii'eneral and special knowledge, directors and superior oflicers
should be gitted with true and keen observation, a delicate discernment of
individual character, and ability to read the secret thoughts of prisoners.
They should also be energetic and strict, and yet kind and entirely im-
j)artial. l^'inally, they should possess some aduiinistrative capacity, and
be, to a. certain extent, familiar with the technical part of the trades,
and have some knowledge of farming. As regards the subalterns, good
directors will make them useful ofticers if they possess thorough honesty,
imperturbable coolness, unshakable firmness mixed with gentleness, ami
a sufficient amount of intelligence and of moral asid religious instruc-
tion.
No special training-schools exist. It is thought exceedingly desirable
that such schools should l)e established for the education of tlie inferior
officers, whose instruction, gained at a jirimary school, is seldom wide
enough to enable them to perfect their knowledge afterward sufticiently
to do tiuything beyond routine work.
(4) In Saxony the officers are appointed by the ministry of the
interior. They are at first employed on trial, and are dismissed if found
incompetent. Political iullueuce does not enter into cousideration. The
(|ualiucatiou of the officers is on the average good. Separate schools
for training officers do not exist. Most of the superior officers undergo,
before their definitive appointment, a practical training in one of the
penitentiaries. The higher the duties to be fulfilled becouie, and the
more carefully the system of individual treatment is carried out, tho
more a knowledge of these duties approaches to science, the niore nec-
essary are the studies of pedagogy and psychology, and the more it
becomes absolutely requisite to make special studies, in order to assist
in attaining the highest efficiency in the administration. Just as no
teacher can now be chosen, contrary to what was the case in times past,
from men of another calling, but must be a nian who has received a
thorough education in his special branch, so the officers of prisons will
be required to have special training, and, therefore, in future, special
schools will become a necessity.
(5) In Wiirtemberg there are no special schools for the education of
prison officers. The directors are usually men who have acted as magis-
trates, and have been formerly engaged in judicial duties, although
ability to act as a Judge is not indisi)ensable for gaining the office of a
director. The keepers are mostly non-commissioned officers who have
left the army.
§ 6. Prison officers in Italy are proposed by the local authorities anrl
confirmed by a ministerial decree. In making choice of them, no weight
is given to their political opinions, but only to their probity and zeal.
As prison officers require special gifts ami knowledge, added to ui)right-
ness and intelligence, faithfully to fulfill their trust, the administration
has for some time entertained the idea of establishing preparatory schools,
and is studying the best plan for their regulation.
§ 7. The only item furnished on this head by the Mexican report is to
the effect that schools for the special education of prison officers do not
exist in the republic.
§ 8. In the Netherlands, it is deemed to be necessary that the direct-^
ors and employes of |)risons be men of tried morality, intelligent, and
gifted with tact and v.ith the knowledge necessary to inspire the respect
92 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
of the prisoners, even without the use of a severe discipline. This re-
spect depends upon the spirit of justice, equity, and humanity which they
exhibit in their relations with the prisoners. In the directors especially,
there is needed a high degree of mental culture and an enlightened un-
derstanding of their duties ; we might say, indeed, of their mission. A
knowledge of the more important foreign languages is necessary, that
they may be able to read and study the best writings on prison discip-
line and to communicate with the foreign prisoners. It is admitted in
the report that the nnijority of the directors and employes of the prisons
do not possess these talents and qualities, a fact which is due chiefly to
the circumstance that the salaries are too low, and that the service of the
prison officers is, in general, too onerous, and held in too little esteem.
As a consequence, young men of good family and education refuse to
enter upon this career.
There are no schools especially designed for the education of prison
officers. The best school is thought to be a well-organized and well-
governed prison, where are offered to the young employes the means of
acquiring knowledge and developing their talents, by the reading and
study of the best writings on the subject of prisons.
§ 1). The qualities deemed reciuisite in Xorway in the higher v)rison
functionaries are a good education, probity, firmness of character, and
special aptitude for their work. Tlie compensation at iiresent paid to
functionaries of the lower grade is so small that no great claims can be
made upon them. Sobriety, punctuality, firmness in action, a mastery
of the more common branches of learning, and the knowledge of some
trade are the qualifications most valued. There are no special training
schools for prison officers, nor, considering the actual circumstances of
the country, are such likely to be soon established. Xo opinion is ex-
pressed in the report on the abstract question of their expediency'.
§ 10. Integrity, humanity, ])unctuality, and intelligence are held in
llussia to be the essential qualities of a good jh'ison otticer. The greater
part of the actual employes are far from possessing these qualifications to
the extent to be desired. The ])rincii )al cause of this deficiency is the scanty
recompense accorded them. There are no special schools for the edu-
cation and training of i)rison otficers. The author of the report, Count
Sollohub, sees no urgent need of such establishments, since, in his view,
the essential character of this class of officials is rather moral than
pedagogic. The practical part, he thinks, can be acipiired in some days.
The count, however, thinks it d(^sirable that there be established in the
administration of ])risons a system of gradual i)romotion, and thus of
special service, in liarmony witli all the other bran(!hes of the public
service.
§ 11. The qualifications deemed in .Sweden essential to a- good prison
officer are a calm and even tenqier, a character humane and serious, a
spirit austerely just, and the most exact order and ])uiictuality in the
p(!rf<)rmanc<! of liis (luties. There are no s[>ecial establishments for the
instruction and education of this class of otficers. The need of such
institutions mak<'S itself more and more felt by reason of the special
knowledge and high moral tone recpiired in these officers. The opinion
isexi)ressed that, whilcsiichspecial schools are wanting, i)ersons<lesirous
of entering the penitentiary service (uight, prior to a full admission to
that s(!rvice, to be rcciuiicd to serve for some time in a well-conducted
j>rison. St ill, as <'\('n there they would a('quii<', oidy tlw. routine, and
not the broad knowledge n«'cessary for the due fiillillment of su(;h fnnc-
"tions as arc; recjuired of them, it is recommended in the rejjort that there
be established a i)enit<'ntiary normal sehool. that is, an institution for
• PRISON OFFICERS NORWAY RUSSIA SWEDEN, ETC. 93
the professioual educatioD of young- men who aspire to eiin)loymeiit in
the penitentiary service.
§ 12. In Switzerland the greatest importance is attached to the choice
of ofticers charged with the treatment of prisoners, since it is well un-
derstood that prisons badly administered, instead of being hospitals
for moral diseases, become rather nurseries of criminals. Several of
the more recently constructed and better-organized penitentiaries are
presided over by men eminently qualified for their i)osition, and they
are aided by bands of intelligent employes, who contribute effectively
to the mission which penitentiary education proposes to itself. Never-
theless, complaint is made, on all sides, of the difficulty experienced in
finding, for the corps of subordinate employes, men possessing the requi-
site qualities and aptitudes. Schools designed for the special educa-
tion of jirison officers do not exist in Switzerland. It is generally felt
that such schools would render an excellent service, especially if a just
and sound idea should be given in them of the nature and aim of peni-
tentiary treatment. A school of this kind would have the immense
advantage of preparing officers who, at present, acquire their experience
at the expense of the institution. Normal schools for the employes
might, it is thought, be organized in penitentiary establishments se-
lected for that purpose, in which candidates might pursue a theoretical
course, and might also be practically initiated into all the branches of
the service. In a well-organized and ably managed i^enitentiary novices
who possess the necessary aptitudes become in a short time entirely
competent to the discharge of their functions.
§ 13. The bane of prison administration in the United States is insta-
bility, resulting from the frequent change of officers, which is itself a
consequence of the wide extent to which political influence enters as au
element into their appointment. Some States have measurably escaped
this influence, but they form rare exceptions to the general rule. But
public opinion is becoming more enlightened on this subject ; and, in
l)roportiou as it gains light and vigor, the tendency toward reform by
the elimirKition of this malign iiower develops itself and becomes stronger
day by day. Except as lowered through political influence, the average
qualifications and efficiency of prison officers in America are as good as
in other countries,* but the lack of an effective system of control and
inspection often makes our prisons less creditable to their officers than
the real merit of the latter deserves. There are no special training
schools for prison officers in the United States, but veteran and experi-
enced superintendents, like General Pilsbury, Mr. Brockway, and a few
others that might be named, do, in the course of time, train a consider-
able number of good officers. The clearest and most authoritative
exposition of the state of public opinion among us as to the policy ot
such institutions is contained in the seventh resolution adopted by the
National Penitentiary Congress of Cincinnati, in these words :
Special traiuing, as well as high qualities of head and heart, is required to make a
good prison or reformatory officer. Then only will the administration of public punish-
ment become scientific, uniform, and successful, when it is raised to the dignity of a.
profession, and men ure specially trained for it, as they are for other pursuits.
§ 14. In the reports relative to the prisons of England and Ireland,
little information is communicated on this subject.
94 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
CHAPTEK X.
SENTENCES.
§ 1. It is held iu Austria that the tiequeut repetition of short seu-
teuces is rather injurious than beneficial. They bhint the feelings of the
l)risoner both as regards the punishment itself and the degradation con-
nected with it, and their customary effect is to confirm him in crimi-
nality. ]>y Austrian law, former conviction is looked upon as an aggra-
vating circumstance, and the judge is obliged to give a severer sentence
on re-conviction, even though the offense be of a ditlerent class. The
disciplinary treatment of re-convicted persons is not, as a rule, made
more severe than that to whicli tlu)se sentenced for a first offense are
subjected.
§ 2. Kecidivists are move severely punished in Jielginm than persons
committed for a first offense. Xothiug is said iu the Belgian report as
to the good or bad effect of repeated short sentences, the reporters re-
garding this as a question peculiar to the criminal legislation and practice
of the United States; a view of the matter which the undersigned, with
all due respect, believes to be erroneous.
§ 3. The criminal courts of ])enmar]<: giv<' short sentences for minor
offenses. This increases the number of crimes, though not of criminals,
the effect of the short sentences being that the so-called habitual crimi-
nals, more frequently now than before the ])resent penal code was pro-
mulgated, both enter and quit the prisons.
§ 4. The authors of the report submitted from France appear to be
somewhat perplexed as to the meaning of the expression " minor offenses,"
used in the question. But whether to be understood in the sense
of those trivial violations of law called "contraventions" in the French
criminal code, or in the sense of misdemeanors of no great gravity, both
of whicli classes of offense are visited in France with but trifling penal-
ties, it is confessed that these penalties do not prevent a repetition, nor,
indee«l, the frecpient rejtetitioii, of the acts against which tlK'y are di-
rected.
A relai)S(', winch, in the legal sense, is tlie commission after a penal
sentence of a new criminal act, receives little favor from the French law.
The circnmstance of a ])]ior conviction, and the greater perversity shown
by a repetition of the olfense, seems, iu effect, to demand from the legis-
hitor an increase of punisliment. Doubtless, neither theft nor homi-
cide changes its nature bc^cause committed a second time; but a crime
lias two elements, the substance ol" tlui act and the criminality of its
author. Tlui legislator has thought it a duty to take both these circum-
stances into <;onsid(aation in measuring the punishment.
§ 5. (1) Of the (lerman states, Baden answers that rejieated short
senteiKU's for trivial offenses ]iroduce no good effect; and, therefore, the
penal code of the emi)ire visits recidivists with punishments of a longer
duiation.
(L!) I'ja\aria ret ui lis a like respojisc. f'rcfpu'nt punishments for minor
offens<'s lii'.vr no good inliuence ; either the ]irisoners beconnuMubittered,
or the ])nnishni('nts, on account of their frequency, lose their effect.
Mor«', it is bclicxcd, can be, done; in thes(5 cases by reproof and teaching
than by i>unisiinicnt. lJccon\iction, esjx'cially for robbery, theft, and
(he, concealment of stolen goods, is A'ciy heavily punished.
(.'>) I'liissia repli(s in the same sense, both as reganls the inefficiency
of repeated shoit inqiiisonnients and the necessity I'or increased severity
of the punisliment on reconvicticur.
.SENTKNCES (iEKMANY ITALY MEXICO, ETC. 95
(4) The answer of Saxouy is iu the following' words :
The practice of courts of justice of passing sentences of short duration of iniprison-
meut for slight otfouscs, and of repeating them in case of relapse, does not exist, be-
cause the penal law of the German Empire, even for theft a third time, orders imprisou-
ment in a penitentiary, provided there are no extenuating circumstances. What effect
this practice will have in regard to increase or decrease of" criiru-s is yet problematical,
and reciuires further satisfactory (ixperieuce.
§ 6. Recidivists, in Italy, always receive severer pnuishmeiit than
offenders on first conviction. But the Italian criminal code does not
regard as crimes the class of offenses known as ''contraventions;" lience
persons guilty of them are not accounted recidivists in the legal sense,
and judicial statistics take no notice of such infractions of law, whatever
the numben' of times they may have been committed by the same person.
The whole question of sentences is considered so important that the
prison reform commission, recently created by royal decree, has thought
tit to make it the subject of a special study.
§ 7. The commission which prepared the report to the congress for
Mexico is of the opinion that evil consequences result from the fact that
imprisonment is intlicted for slight offenses, even iu the case of a first
transgression, especially if the offender be sent to an establishment
where prisoners are kept in association.
lieconviction receives the punishment which, the attenuating or
aggravating circumstance of the case being considered, ought to be
awarded to the otfeuse itself, with an increase of one-sixth, if this is less
than the former, of one-fourth if it is of the same gravity, and of one-
third if it is greater. If the offender has been pardoned for a previous
oHense, and if it is not for the first time that he relapses into crime, the
increase of punishment may be doubled.
§ 8. It is not thought iu the ^Netherlands that repeated sentences to
short imprisonments produce any good effect upon the prisoner. A re-
lapse may give occasion to an increase of the punishment in the ratio
of one-third, when the first sentence was for more than a year's impris-
onment; and in all cases it is a circumstance which may determine the
judge to award the maximum of punishment allowed by the law.
§ 9. Norway answers tliat experience has not certainly determined
what effect repeated short sentences have upon the criminal. A prior
conviction increases the punishment to be inflicted by a subsequent sen-
tence; but as regards the treatment of prisoners during their incarcera-
Ition, all receive the same.
§ 10. The report for Eussia uses this strong language: "Not only
do 'repeated short sentences produce no good effect, but they create
criminals by profession."
A subsequent offense has the eliect to increase the severity of the
l)unishm.ent.
§ 11. Short imi)risonments for minor offenses are believed, in Sweden,
to produce upon the prisoner an unfavorable rather than a favorable
influence.
The punishment of thieves is gradually increased on each subsequent
conviction. A fourth sentence may inflict ten years of hard labor, and
in very grave cases the sentence may even be for life. But the national
parliament has recently determined to lower the scale of punishment
for recidivists convicted of theft.
§ 12. The directors of the Swiss penitentiaries are nn;;nimous in re-
garding repeated short sentences for minor offenses as a pernicious
judicial practice which is followed without reflection. The sentiment
of justice, as well as the moral reformation of the prisoner, requires
that the repression be more serious and more adequately protracted in
96 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
the case of individuals who take on the habit of crime, and who threaten
to make it the basis of their character. The effect of these short im-
prisonments becomes worse on each successive conviction. The recidi-
vists fall deeper and deeper, and the prison cannot lift them up. During
the short stay they make in the x)euitentiary establishment, it is impos-
sible to teach them a trade or even to make them apt at work. The
recidivists sentenced correctionally have more or less lost the moral
sense and self-respect. The influence of the penitentiary education
cannot aft'ect the individual of this class who, on entering the establish-
ment, counts the exact number of days which separate him from free-
dom. Such prisoners undergo, more or less patiently, the restraint im-
posed upon them ; they are indifferent, and little heed either the present
or the future which awaits them.
The existing codes in the several cantons denounce a severer punish-
ment against prisoners convicted more than once. Some sentence them
to the maximum of the punishment incurred ; others add to this pun-
ishment its moiety, and even more, in excess of the maximum. Every
sentence for an offense exceeding six months becomes an aggravating
circumstance in the case of the person who, having suffered it, is pros-
ecuted criminally.
§ 13. It is the practice of courts in the United States to give short
sentences for minor offenses, and to repeat them often in the case of the
same i)ersou. The effect of this here, as everywhere else, is and must be
t-o increase crime, as our prisons are now managed. Such is the unani-
mous opinion of all prison keepers, so far as known, in this country.
§ 14. The reports for England and Ireland are silent on this point.
CHAPTEKXI.
IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT.
§ 1. Imprisonment for debt was abolished in Austria by law May 4,
1808, and only a precantionary arrest can take place when the debtor,
while the action is pending, is accused of an attempt to escape. Such
an arrest is merely a deprivation of liberty, and the prisoner is allowed
such advantages* as are consistent with simple arrest. I
§ 2. Debtors' jnisons still exist in Belgium, but they are empty. Cases
of incarceration for debt have become very rare since the publication of
the law of the 27th of July, 1871. The treatment to which imprisoned
debtors are subjected is not the same as that applied to criminals. They
occu])y s])ecial cells, have the ex(;lusive enjoyment of an exercise-yard,
and may communicate with each othci', receive four visits a week from
their relatives and fiom persons with whom they have business relations,
and n)ay correspond i'reely with the outside world.
§ li. xso information is ailbrded on this point in the report for Denmark.
§ 4. In Eran(;e the law of the 22d of July, 18(57, put an end to im-
jtrisonmciit for <l(;bt in commercial and (;ivil matters and in those in
which foreign<',rs are concerned. The> n^straint of the body exists no
longer, o.x('A'\)t in matters criminal, correctional, and of sim[)le> ])olice.
'J'Ik! usage has Just Ixu^ii i-e-establishcd as regards the payment of moneys
due to the Htat<;. in such cases the ])ul)lic minister is bound to take
(;arc that [)ers()iis imj)iison<Ml jbr «lebts to the state receive the same
rjitions as the otlici- prisoners who ;ire in the charge of the administra-
tion.
IMPEISONMENT FOR DEBT GERMANY ITALY, ETC. 97
The decree of bankruptcy may order the placing of the person of the
bankrupt in a debtor-j)rison, and, if there is no such prison, in a part
of the house of arrest reserved for that purpose. This is a measure which
prudence almost always dictates. If the debtor is simpl^^ unfortunate,
a safe conduct soon restores him to his family and to liberty; if the
examination of his conduct justifies rigorous measures, it is thus made
impossible for him to liberate himself by flight. The arrest and im-
prisonment of the bankrupt must be preceded by the consignment, on
the part of the commissioners of bankruptcy, of the means of living,
and, in case of insufficient means for this purpose, the advance of the
moneys to be consigned is made from the i^ublic treasure, on the order
of the commissioner, given at the request of the public ministry. The
French law, as is thus seen, places the incarcerated bankruj)t in a
situation altogether different from that of ordinary prisoners.
§ 5. The German states report as follows :
(1) Imprisonment for debt does not exist in Baden.
(2) In the rare instances of imprisonment for debt in Bavaria, the
treatment of such x)risoners is milder than that of other prisoners. It
is a mere arrest; they have almost unrestricted liberty as regards cor-
respondence and the receiving of visits ; their food is better ; and they
are separated from the other prisoners.
(3) In commercial and civil matters imprisonment for debt no longer
exists in Prussia. It is, however, allowed when it becomes necessary
to secure an examination or a judicial prosecution, or to execute a dis-
tress warrant. The treatment of prisoners for debt is totally different
Irom that of criminals.
(4) No information on this point was furnished by Saxony,
(o) There is no imprisonment for debt in AYiirtemberg.
§ 6. Imprisonment for debt is still practised in Italy. In detention-
prisons of any considerable size, there are commonly sections destined
to the imprisonment of civil debtors. In none of them is there want-
ing at least an apartment for whomever is imprisoned on the demand of
his creditor. The number of persons imprisoned for debt is exceedingly
small. The maintenance of the debtor is a charge upon the creditor,
and his treatment diifers from that of other prisoners maintained at the
charge of the state.
§ 7. Imjirisonment for debt was abolished in Mexico as early as 1812,
and has never been revived.
§ 8. This practice still prevails in the jSTetherlands. Persons impris-
oned for debt are placed in the houses of detention and of arrest ; some-
times in the cantonal prisons. They are entered on a special register,
and are not confounded with other prisoners. In the greater part of
the prisons the best apartments are assigned to them and a little better
furniture. They do not wear the prison-dress, unless, indeed, they
have no other ; and their food is of a better quality.
§ 9. Imprisonment for debt still exists in Norway, but the right is sel-
dom used. Its abolishment has been moved, and it cannot be long de-
layed. In the district-prisons rooms are arranged for receiving prisoners
for debt, but they are furnished nearly in the same manner as common
dwelling- rooms, and the constraint to which such prisoners are subject
is only intended to secure their presence and to prevent infractions on
prison discipline, while in other respects, especially as regards their
meals and occupation, they are not ranged in the class of other piisou-
ers.
§ 10. Debtors' prisons are still found in Eussia in all their rigor : but
a special commission has just formulated a project according to which
H. Ex. 185 7
98 INTERXATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
imprisonmeiit for debt will be t(51erated only in a limited number of
cases. The treatment of persons thus imprisoned is, Iiowever, far less
severe than that of other classes of prisoners.
§ 11. Since 18GS imprisonment for debt is permitted in Sweden only in
cases where the debtor refuses to declare under oath that he is without
resources. This class of prisoners is treated like those awaiting trial.
They are not required to work, and have the right of procuring better
food and more comforts.
§ 12. Prisons for debt exist only in a few cantons of Switzerland, and
even where such prisons are still found, the constraint of the body has
fallen into disuse. In a number of cantons, the state authorizes the
restraint of the body, fn default of payment of the expenses of justice;
but this imprisoment is of short duration, and often is not inflicted
at all. This punishment is regarded as correctional, and has no char-
acter of infamy.
§ 13. Imprisonment for debt has been abolished in most if not all the
States of the American Union in all cases, except where fraud is known
or suspected.
§ 14. No information was communicated on this subject from England
or Ireland.
C 11 A P T E E XII
CAUSES OF CRIME.
§1. The report from Austria names, as chief causes of crime in
that country, dislike to work, the desire for luxuries, impatience of re-
straint, want of education, and the poverty so closely allied to Ignor-
ance.
§ 2. The principal causes of crime in Belgium fire stated to be, in the
army, v,ant of occupation and the system of substitution ; in civil life,
oblivion of religious and moral principles, ignorance of duty, want of a
trade or some regular calling, artificial wants, drunkenness, libertinism,
distaste for work, and consequent idleness.
§ 3. The crime most frequent in Denmark is the violation of the
riglit of property. Three-fourths of the prisoners are sentenced for
theft. The cause of stealing is rarely undeserved distress ; most com-
monly it is idleness, the desire for lawful or unlawful ])leasures, or
habits of drinking. These vices generally result from, or are associated
with, a neglected education.
§ 4. 1'he rei)ort from the French government states that there is rea-
son to ])elieve that in Prance, as in many other countries, the insufli-
ciency of moral education, the general defect of intellectual culture,
and thewiintof an industrial calling, not oi)posing to the aj^petites
and iriHlincts a barrier sutliciently strong, leave an open road to crimes
and misdcmefinors. These offenses are afterward modified and perpe-
trated under influences springing frOm the circumstances by which their
authors are habitually surrounded. It is thus that, on the frontiers, the
populations, seeing in the cod(! of fiscal laws only an enemy of natural
right, ha\'e litfU; hesitation, for the pur]M)se of avoiding Ihe payment of
taxes, to sacMifice the lives of the agents (charged with colle<;ting them.
In the (titicH, tlie laboicr, se<lu(;cd l>y i<l<'as of ai luxiny which his labor
<io( M not and ought, not to give him, suffers himself to be drawn on to
att«ini)tH agiiinst pi-oinTty and, too often, against social orchu-. The in-
habitant of tlie country, who has under his eyes only the spectacle of a
CAUSE OF CRIME FRANCE GERMANY ITALY, ETC. 99
productive soil parceled out to infinity by tbe law of inheritance, de-
mands violently, sometimes even at the cost of his neighbor's life, tbe
enlargement of the jiatcli that belongs to himself.
To these evils, of which France has no monopoly, the report asks.
Does there exist a remedy which will prove absolute and comi)lete ? It
may be doubted ; but it is certain that, in elevating morality, in fortify-
ing the heart, in enlarging the boundaries of knowledge, the practical
ability of men would be increased, and the effects of these evils would
be diminished by lessening their causes.
§ 5. Germany answers thus:
(1) Baden says : " Thirst for pleasure/' with a reference to 1 John,
2: IG.
(2) As principal causes of crime in Bavaria, are mentioned : 1. Want
of religious teaching. 2. Abnormal family relations. According to a law
that existed up to the year 18G8, marriage between persons who pos-
sessed no landed property' was exceedingly difiicult, and, in consequence,
illegitimate births were very numerous. As a result of the want of the
beneficial influence which a family-life exercises, illegitimate-born form
a considerable proportion of all prisoners. 3. ISTeglected education, espe-
cially in those parts where children are employed in the guarding of
cattle or in working in manufactories. 4. Rough manners and customs.
In some parts of Bavaria it is still a custom of the peasants to carry
long stiletto-like knives when visiting public-houses and dancing-places;
and thus, on Sundays and holidays, the slightest cause leads them to
inflict on each other severe injuries.
§ 6. The inmates of Italian prisons, in 1871, were in the following
proportions : For crimes against the person, in the bagnios, all males, 4(j
l^er cent.; in the penitentiaries, males 35 per cent.; females, 28 per cent.
Orimes against property, in the bagnios, 30 per cent.; in the [)enitenti-
aries, males, 47 per cent.; females, 53 per cent. The chief causes of
crime, accordingly, are stated to be cupidity, revenge, anger, and illicit
passion.
§ 7. The answer returned by the Mexican government is so iutei>esting.,
as well as able, that it is given, without condensation, in the words of
the commission which prepared the report. The commissioners say :
Among the most general causes of crime in our country are want of education iii
the lower classes, abuse of intoxicating drinks, and poverty. Among the temporary
and transitory causes which occasion the crimes and offenses committed in our coun-
try, the commission thinks tliat the most active are the followmg : The prolongation of
civil war, the impressment to obtain soldiers, the bad state of our prisons, the com-
motion created in the religious faith of society by the innovations made in ecclesias-
tical matters, the want of preventive police, and the bad administration of justice.
Though all our statesmen and pbilantiiropists have of late become aware of the im-
portance and convenience to tbe public of tbe establishment of the penitentiary sys-
tem, the financial diftitulties, the little stability of our governmeuts, and the constant
necessity in which we have been placed to defend our existence against the attempts
of revolutionary bands— an object which has almost exclusively absorbed our atten-
tion— have until now prevented the realization of this great social reform. Conse-
quently, great criminals and petty offenders being indiscrimiaately mixed in our
prisons, the contact, the association, and the example of the former have exercised a
haneful influence on the latter ; and, generally, those who, having otfdnded against the
law, are sent to our prisons and have remained some time in them, far from being
reformed, leave the jail considerably worse than wheu they hrst passed under its gates.
The improvement of our political state will also contribute to do away with, or at least
to lessen, the bad effects of this cause ; and the reform of our prisons, directed first of
all to the total separation of prisoners, must be, according to public opiuion, one of
the first objects to which governuient ought to devote its acteutioa, as soon as we have
put into practice the principle that authority cannot be relbrmed by any other means
than the pacific action of the laws, and that in con.sequeuce people are no longer exclu-
sively preoccupied with the care of their own preservation.
100 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
§ 8. The cbief causes of crime in the Netherlands are stated to be the
■want of education, drunkenness, and the desire to make a figure beyond
one's means and position. In the case of young prisoners, there may
be mentioned, in addition, the influence, often pernicious, of a second
marriage of their parents, which not unfrequently, by embittering the
position of the children of the first marriage, deprives them of the
salutary influence of family-life.
§ 9. Crime in Norway, being for the most part a violation of the rights-
of property and assaults on the person, is traced mainly to laziness, drunk-
enness, bad company, neglected education, and the want of good home-
influences.
§ 10. In answering this question for Eussia, Count Sollohub says :
The cause of crimes in my country arises from a certain oriental fatalism, wbicli
enters profoundly into the character of the people. This fatalism, which is associated
"with a profound religious faith, inspires frequently a singular indifference to life and
death, to the enjoyments and privations of life, sometimes even to moral good and evil.
The result is a spirit of indolence, which, however, is often roused by the temptation
to drunkenness and the excitements occasioned by it.
At the same time the count avers that the want of a general system
of elementary education, abuses tolerated by a still defective adminis-
tration, and a legislation which is not yet definitely settled, contribute in
propagating lamentable disorders. He holds that, in the Eussian peni-
tentiary system, the cause of criminality must be kept in view, just as^
the cause of disease should not be ignored when the ijhysician proceeds
to treat his patient.
§ 11. The chief causes of crime in Sweden are the want of proper care
in youth, bad company, evil examples, poverty, and the love of strong
drink. An additional cause is that he who has once fallen into crime
and been imprisoned for itis generally repelled and left without help in his
efforts to gain an honest living. The re-admission of liberated prisoners
into society is the more difficult, as by existing law every i^erson who
has been sentenced for theft, forgery, murder, &c., is further sentenced
to loss of civil rights for a time (at least five years) or for life. This
covers him with infamy, and consequently excludes him from all the
rights and advantages pertaining to honorable men. His civil degrada-
tion is entered on his certificate of conduct.
§ 12. The question of the causes of crime is elaborately and ably
treated in the report from Switzerland, a mere enumeration of which
only can be given by the undersigned. These causes are said to be
malign or defective education, abnormal family relations, sensualism,
recklessness, drunkenness, and want of a trade or other regular business.
§13. Tlie prevailing cliai-acter of crime in the United States is hard
to define. In (lie South and West crimes of violence, in the North and
East crimes of fraud are common, an<l theft ])revaijs very generally,
though not so much as in ]Ourope, Many of our most accomplished
thieves ajid burglars come to us from the old country. Intemperance
is aproximat*^ cause of much the greater number of ci'iiues here ; ori)han-
age, idleness, the Aviint of fan)ily goverinnent, and the wretched home-
life, or lack of lionie-iiCe, in gicat cities, ai'c leading causes of crime. A
desire to lixc w itiiout work lejids to much crime here, as well as in other
countries.
§14. No information is furnished on this subject by the English or
Irish rejKuts.
LIBEEATED PEISONEKS AUSTEIA — BELGIUM, ETC. 101
CHAPTEE XIII.
LIBEEATED PRISONERS.
§ 1. The eflbrt to procure work for liberated prisoners has, in Austria,
beeu limited, hitherto, to this, that those who have learned a trade in
prison receive a letter stating that they have done so, and those who
have shown themselves particularly attentive receive a testimonial to
that effect. In particular cases steps are taken on the part of the offi-
cials to procure work for those prisoners whose conduct has been,
exemplary and who have given proofs of firmness. The results, how-
ever, have been too isolated to aflbrd any statistics upon the subject.
There is only one Liberated Prisoners' Aid Society, which is in Vienna.
All efforts on the part of the prison directors to call into existence simi-
lar societies elsewhere have been unsuccessful. The .society in Vienna
limits its operation to supporting liberated prisoners till they shall have
found occupation, and to aiding them with tools, clothes, &c.
§2. No prisoners' aid or patronage societies are found in Belgium;
but the government has not lost sight of this important point. Efforts
were made in 1848 to organize such associations; but, unhappily, the
measures taken were not crowned with success. While waiting, the
xidministration seeks the best means for assuring to liberated prisoners
an effectual protection, so as to prevent their falling back into crime.
A special credit figures even in the budget of the department of justice,
permitting the administrative commissions of reformatory institutions
to extend aid to their liberated inmates.
§ 3. In 1859 prisoners' aid associations were formed for each of the
four great prisons of Denmark. Their action is limited to released pris-
oners. Each prison has thus its own society, founded by private liber-
ality alone, which is to be considered as a charitable association ; and it
is thought to act best in that manner. The societies have annual gen-
eral meetings, by which the administrations are elected. On the admin-
istrations there are always chosen some of the functionaries of the pris-
ons, so that they may be put into direct relations therewith. As mem-
bers of the administration, there are particularly selected citiaens who
carry on an extended business as manufacturers, merchants, artisans or
agriculturists, and who have great influence, because they have it in
their i)ower to employ a large number of workmen. Once a month some
member of each society appears in the prison to see the prisoners who
are to be released the ensuing month. Their behavior is examined, and
an agreement is made in regard to tendering the help that, according
to circumstances, seems to be most fit. Not all prisoners are assisted,
but mainly those who, on account of their diligence and good behavior,
are recommended by the director. What, next to the behavior, is most
taken into consideration is their age, their want, and their earlier life.
The younger are especially helped by getting them into service ; the
older, by money ; the artisan, by tools, &c. On the greater part the
help is bestowed as a gift,, but on some as a loan. Some are only prom-
ised help on condition that they first manifest their will to help them-
selves. All about, in the country, the society has its agents, to whom
it confides its wards. These societies appear thus to be well organized.
Every year they awaken a greater sympathy, and the number of their
members increases. For ten years the state has given an annual sub-
sidy ; and the most clieering circumstance is that the municipal author-
ities, as well in the towns as in the country, more and more make annual
102 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
contributions, making it clear that the cause has been approved by the
people. Several legacies have been left to 'the associations, the interest
of which is to be expended in procuring clothes for released prisoners.
The largest of these bequests is $5,500.
§ 4. Up to the present time the patronage of liberated prisoners has
not been generally or systematically organized in France. The Abb6
Coural founded in 1842, near Montpellier, under the title of Solitude of
Nazareth, a refuge designed for the liberated females of the south. The
Sisters of Mary- Joseph, in imitation of this example, have founded seven
other refuges near the central i)risons, for women. There is only one
establishment of this kind for men, the asylum of St. Leonard, at
Couzon, (Rhone.) The results of the refuges devoted to women are good ;
those obtained at the asylum at St. Leonard are less satisfactory.
Two active and successful patron age- societies, in aid of liberated
Protestants of both sexes, have been for some years in existence. Since
the official report was made to the congress, a central patronage society
has been established in Pai^is, which proposes to found branches in all
parts of France, as may be found practicable. The administration is
earnestly engaged in seeking the means to increase the number of in-
stitutions similar to those mentioned above.
What is said above relates exclusively to adults discharged from>
prisons. The liberated juveniles of the department of the Seine are-
placed under the patronage of a society which facilitates their admission
to provisional liberty and aids them in acquiring a trade. No better
planned, efficient, or successful organization of the kind exists in any
part of the world. It is but fair to the i)enitentiary administration of
France to say that this last statement is not contained in their report j
the responsibility for it is assumed by the undersigned.
§ 5, Germany responds as follows :
(1) In Eaden, the directors of the penitentiary establishments are
required to enter, for this purpose, into correspondence with the
authorities of the political administration some time before the libera-
tion of each prisoner ; it is made the duty of these authorities to unite
with the prisoners' aid societies and with the local authorities in j)i"0-
vidiug for liberated prisoners. This measure is only of rec'ent date,
and its results have not yet shown themselves to any great extent..
They cannot fail to be good.
Prisoners' aid societies exjst in twenty-one out of fifty-nine districts..
The results are satisfactory.
(2) To procure work for those liberated prisoners who are considered
as improved, the administration in Ijavaria puts itself into communica-
tion, while the i)risoner is still under their care, with honest employers,
with benevolent societies, with the parish vestries, or with other author-
ities. The ])risoner receives on liis dismissal, if necessary, clothes and
traveling expenses from the funds of the prison. By these jueans i)ris-
onerH are often i)reserved irom relapse.
In every province of the country there exist liberated prisoners' aid
Hocieties; these are, liowever, hampered in their activity by ignorance,
and the little- interest Avhich exists in the mind of the public, in many
j)lac('S, respeeting their objects. Hut tlu^ Municli Society, which has
cxist<!d for eleven years, Ijas found enq>h)ymeiit for 1,182 dischargwl
prisoners, of whom 'Ml have relapsed, \\liile 805 condu(;t themselves
well, and may be, consideii'd as refoinied. The objects of these societies
are to receive into a relnge, l,li()s(i who are homeless, to try to i)rocurc
them work', to give help — more especially in tin; shape of tools — and to-
watch earefully tlie conduct of each tlischarged prisoner.
LIBERATED PRISONERS GERMANY ITALY, ETC. 103
(3) In Prussia, the administrative antliorities of prisons use their best
efforts to obtain protection and work for liberated prisoners. For this
I)iirpose they communicate with the minister and authorities of the
birth-phiee or residence of tlie prisoner, and, wherever they exist, with
prisoners' aid societies. Owing- to the rehictance of masters and work-
men to have rehatious with liberated prisoners, the efforts made to aid
them have not been satisfactory in their results.
Aid societies exist in many towns, bat they have neither a common
organization nor a common center which unites them ; and many more
are wanted to make them bear any just proportion to the extent of
country. Their number is too small and their action too feeble suffi-
ciently to realize the objects they have in view. The aim of these so-
cieties is to give temporary shelter and work to liberated prisoners,
either in asylums provided by the society or in the houses of j)rivate
persons of honorable character. They seek in every possible way to
maintain relations with their wards, in order to aid them with counsel
or pecuniary gifts.
(4) Saxony communicates no information on this point.
(5) In Wiirtemberg there has been a patronage society for liberated
jjrisoners, W'ith branches in the different districts of the kingdom. It
has 3,000 members. It seeks to aid its wards by obtaining work for
them, and by supplying them with tools, raw material for manufacture,
clothes, bedding, &c.
§ 6. In Italy certain religious associations possess funds that may be
used in aid of liberated prisoners ; an occasional patronage society exists
in some of the cities. Such societies are what remain of institutions,
more or less ancient, which were religiously preserved and even protected
by the Italian government ; but there are none of any great importance,
except at Milan, Turin, and Florence. The government has sought to
extend institutions of this kind; but down to the present time, such
institutions are too few in number and too liujited in means to justify a
prediction as to whether they will take root in the social soil of Italy, and,
if so, whether their rules should be preserved or modified in order that the
best fruit for which they were founded may be obtained from them,
§ 7. The commissioners who prepared the report for Mexico state that
as regards the federal district — the only part of the republic of which
they have any positive information — committees of vigilance are being
established, and to them, among others, belongs the duty of aiding dis-
charged prisoners in finding work.
§ 8. The Netherlands government, as such, does not charge itself offi-
cially with the care of liberated convicts ; but many directors of prisons
take great pains to find work for them, and generally they have cause
to congratulate themselves on the result of their efforts. The greater
part of the directors, however, are reported as too indifferent to concern
themselves much about the matter.
The Netherlands Society for the Moral Amelioration of Prisoners has
for its object, not only the visiting of prisoners, but also the manifesta-
tion of an interest in their welfare after their discharge from prison.
This society counts forty branches, scattered throughout the whole king-
dom, and corresponding members in thirty-seven places where tJiere are
no branches. To some of the branch societies are attached committees
of ladies. As regards the prisoners, a variety of methods is employed
to encourage and help them. They procure situations for them at serv-
ice, place them in the merchant-marine, supply them with tools, obtain
for them some little industry or business, provide them with the means
of emigrating, &c. The results differ, as a matter of course ; but the
10-4 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
society accomplishes much, and often sees its efforts crowned with suc-
cess.
§ 9. With a view of guarding released prisoners from relapse, efforts are
made in Norway to procure work for them, to get positions for them as sail-
ors, to aid them with tools, money, clothing, &c. At the same time, it is
thought that too much assistance weakens their moral forces. There
exist a few discharged j)risouers'aid societies, but they lack the means
to do their work as extensively and efficiently as would be desirable.
§ 10. Hitherto little has been done in Eussia to aid discharged pris-
oners in obtaining work. The first patronage society has just been offi-
cially established in St. Petersburg.
§ 11. Prisoners' aid societies exist at present only in two provinces
of Sweden. They aim at obtaining work for iirisoners in the houses
of steady masters ; they also supply clothing, and sometimes make ad-
vances in money on the prisoner's work. Occasionally those express-
ing a desire have received aid to enable them to emigrate. Of late
years it has been proposed to make greater efforts to give a more prac-
tical direction to the labors of these societies. They have started out
on the principle that if habits of order and cleanliness are obtained by
the discipline of the prison, and the time of imprisonment is properly
employed in the moral education of the prisoners and in giving them
skill in industrial and agricultural labor, the societies can more gener-
ally find them work immediately on their liberation. For prisoners for
whom work is not at once obtained, it is proposed to establish agricul-
tural colonies, where they may learn order in work and skill in certain
branches of farming, so as thus afterward to be able more readily to
earn an honest living.
§ 12. Patronage societies are organized in nearly ail the cantons of
Switzerland. That in the canton of St. Gall was established in 1839,
thirty-four years ago. It was made by law^ the duty of every prisoner,
who ^Yas a native of St. Gall, or had his domicile there, to place himself
for three months at least under the protection of the society. Where-
ever patronage societies exist, thej^ aid discharged prisoners by their
counsels, watch over their conduct, shield them from evil enticements,
and purchase the clothing, tools, «&c., which may be needed by them.
They endeavor to aid their beneficiaries by procuring work rather than by
giving them assistance in money. But, in spite of all these efforts, the
results do not correspond to the desires of tlie friends of prison reform.
There is not sufficient unity in the organization of patronage. This is a
great inconvenience, which the Swiss Society for Penitentiary Eelbrm is
seeking to remove, by bringing into mutual relation all those persons
Avlio, in the ditlerent cantons, occupy themselves with the patronage of
lilx/ratcd ]uisoners.
§ l.'J. The work ofaidingliboi-atod prisoners, and thus seeking to prevent
their return to crinio, is by no means as extensively or as thoroughly
organized in the United States as it ought to be. Massachusetts lias an
ofiieial agency for this purj)Ose, which has accomplished and is accom-
])liHliing an iinnienso amount of good. The New York Prison Associa-
tion, the lMiihj(U'li>hia I'rison Society, the Calilbrnia Prison Commission,
and tlie Maryland IMisonc^rs' Aid Association are the (bur most efficient
organizations of this kind in the country. There are a few minor organ-
izations in different I()(;alities, more or less useful ; but their work is, for
the most ])art, r<sti icted for the want of sullicient jneans to make it
broader and nion^ effective. Jt will be the work of the National I'rison
Association to organize such agencies in all the- States where their or-
ganization may be found practicable.
LIBERATED PRISONERS NORWAY RUSSIA, ETC. 105
§ 14. The patronage of liberated jorisoners is more extensive, more
thorouglily organized, more active, and more successful in England than,
perhaps, in any other country. Some forty associations of this kind are
found in the metropolis and the counties. They aid, annually, over 6,000
released prisoners. The assistance given differs according as it is granted
to men or women. That accorded to men consists in procuring
work for them and in furnishing them, while awaiting employment,
board, clothing, &c. Two societies, however, have founded, each, a ref-
uge for men. One of these deserves special mention. It has an aver-
age number of thirty-three men, occupied in making mats. It is the In-
dustrial Home of Wakefield, in connection with the prison of that name.
During a period of seven years this establishment has received 942
beneficiaries. The proceeds of their labor have sufficed to defray all
expenses, and the men commonly earn a surplus of a few shillings each
weekly. On the 30th of September, 1871, there was in the treasury be-
tween $4,000 and $5,000 of surplus earnings.
The assistance given to women is solely through the agency of ref-
uges. It is, in fact, difficult to find immediate employment at domestic
service for a woman just out of prison. She requires to be subjected to
some preliminary probation. Discharged female prisoners themselves
feel the necessity for this support which preserves them from fresb
temptations. Hence they seek the interposition of aid societies in
much larger proportions than men.
§ 15. Ireland has no patronage society for its convict-prison. The in-
termediate prison at Lusk, with its agent for discharged prisoners, does
all that is necessary for men, and two refuges, one Catholic, the other
Protestant, for women.
C H A P T E E X I Y.
SUGGESTIONS RELATING TO REFORMS.
The following was the closing question of the series addressed to
governments, the replies to which have furnished the comprehensive
and valuable information contained in the preceding chapters, viz :
''Are you satisfied with the penitentiary system of your country? What
defects, if any, do you find in it"^ What changes or modifications would
you wish to see introduced?" The substance of the answers returned
will be embodied in the present chapter.
§ 1. The answer of Austria is that the system of imprisonment as it
exists in that country suffers from the fiict that there is too great a
uniformity in the punishment, and that there is not a prison for each
kind of punishment. This, it is said, interferes with the effect of the
various kinds of punishment, especially with those of a strict character.
To remedy this it would be desirable, the report states : 1, to lessen the
various kinds of punishment in number, and, if possible, to reduce them
to three ; 2, that every one of these punishments be characterized by dif-
ferences in the dietary and treatment of the prisoner; and, 3, that every
kind of of punishment be undergone in prisons si)ecially designed for it.
§ 2. Belgium replies that she is satisfied with her existing system, in
so far as that reply is not applicable to establishments on the congre-
gate plan, and that the transformation of these into cellular prisons is
actively i^rogressiug.
106 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
§ 3. Under certain reserves tbe French report points out the follow-
ing reforms and ameliorations as desirable in the penitentiary system r
1. The abolition of the punishment of imprisonment for offenses of little
gravity, in place of which should be substituted, as far as possible,
pecuniary penalties, the temporary privation of certain civil rights, &c.
2. The definitive choice of a system of imprisonment for prisoners
awaiting examination or trial and for those sentenced to ])unishments
of a duration not exceeding two years. 3. The adoption of a peniten-
tiary system applicable, under different degrees of severity, to : 1, cor-
rectional convicts, sentenced to a punishment of two years and overj
2, reclusionaries ; 3, persons sentenced to hard labor. 4. The organi-
zation of patronage societies, to which liberated prisoners may have
recourse on their discharge from the penitentiaries.
§ 4. The German states represented in the congress give answer thus :
(1) Baden says that she is satisfied with her penitentiary system,
since the cellular system, as a rule, is adopted.
(2) Bavaria replies that the system of associated imprisonment which
exists in most of her prisons cannot be considered satisfactory, par-
ticularly as the greater i>art of them are old castles or convents, which
are ill-adapted to purposes of imprisonment.
(3) The answer of Prussia is given in tlie words of the report, as
follows :
In maaj" respects tbe orgauizatiou of Prussian prisons may he considered perfect.
Order especially characterizes the administration. The assiduoascare taken in regard
to the prisoners in all respects and the eiforts made to give them work suited to their
capacities are beyond reproach. The discipline, severe, yet just, is excellent. The
instruction and religious exhortations are efficiently and carefully given. On the
other hanit, our system has some grave defects which urgently demand tbe retnedy we
are earnestly striving to tiud. Part of tbe prisons require complete rebuilding ; others
need internal reconstruction ; a general rule enforcing the separation of prisoners at
night is urgently required, and their isolation, both by day and night, ought to be more
extensively applied. We need tbe application of cellular imprisonment in all cases of pre-
liminary detention and of short sentences. We think this system also indispensable tor
the objects aimed at m all pcmitentiary reclusion, and we consequently propose a pro-
portional increase in tbe number of cells. We ought also to devise means for permitting
tlie prisoners to work in tbe open air more than they do at present, and to etfect this
change in such a nuinner that the new measure may serve as a preparatory step for
the prisoner's return to liberty. It is moreover very requisite to care more for the
preliminary training of the inferior ofGcera, to increase their number, and to give them
facilities for passing, after a certain length of service in prisons, into other branches
of the state-service. Lastly, to solve the difficulties which till now have obstructed
elfective prison-reform in our country, wo must create a central organization which,
would regulate prisons of every kind and have due regard to the interest of every
nature connected with prison administration.
§ 5. Norway replies in a very general way, with no definite i)roposi-
tion of interest to other nations, except that tavoring the establishment
of separate prisons for women.
§ 0. iloilaiid says that the greatest delect in her penitentiary system
is tliat tlierc, is no system, or, ratlier, that the two systems of associated
and ccllulai- iinprisomiieut are applied without any uniform rule, and
without placing tlieiii in a harmonious relation to each other. Hence
there is a pictty gc'ueral agrcH'inent that a reform is nec(!ssary, and that
it should have mainly twoobjects in view: a revision of the ])enal laws,
whiich wonhl intro(hic(5 a more uniform and more harmonious system of
imprisonmeni, ami a serious elfort to give greater dignity to the jSosi-
tion ol" tiie directors and emi)lo.v(''s, aiul to open these olfices to men of a
high ',r e(lu<jation. \VIiat(iverdifferenc«is of oi)iuion may exist as regards
the, system to be folh.)W(Ml, (and tliey are great, since all the systems
which divide, savans find their partisans,) on these two points there is «.
very general agreement.
EEFOKMS FRANCE GERMANY NORWAY, . ETC. 107
§ 7. Couut Sollolinb, replying for Russia, siibmitted a special and
very able paper on this poiut, developing a complete penitentiary sys-
tem, which he had drawn up and presented to the imperial government,
as president of the commission on penitentiary reform for the empire.
This paper, the 'production of a profound and, for the most part, right-
thinking intellect, though long, is too valuable to be omitted. In sub-
mitting it to the congress, the count remarked that the brief view, pre-
sented by liim, of the present state of the prison question in Eussia
sufficiently showed the urgent need of reform in his country. He said
that the imperial commission, over which he has the honor to preside,
had just completed the draughtof a prison system, which was about to be
revised by the proper authority, and he judged that it might have some
interest for the eminent specialists then assembled in London. At all
events, he desired the criticisms of his honorable colleagues in the con-
gress, it being understood that the i)lan proposed is based chiefly on
the circumstances and necessities of his native country.
The penitentiary system proposed by the imperial commission is, it will
be seen, in the form of a bill or project of law, to be enacted by the
supreme law-making power of the empire. It is in the words follow-
ing, to wit :
I.— Classification of the Places of Imi'risonment.
1. All the places of imprisonmeut iu the empire are divided into: a, preliminary;
1), penal. ,
2. The places of preliminary imprisonment are used for the incarceration of: a,
persons awaiting examination or trial ; b, persons convicted and awaiting the execu-
tion of their sentence ; c, persons arrested by the police.
3. The places of penal imprisonment are used for the incarceration of jjersous sen-
tenced by judgment of a court.
4. The'places of preliminary imprisonmeut are subdivided into: a, police prisons ;
i, houses of justice.
5. The places of penal imprisonment are subdivided, according to the duration of the
detentions, into : a, short duration ; J>, moderate duration ; c, long duration.
6. The places of penal imprisonment of short duration are: a, jails (ies arrefs;) *
T), houses of amendmeut.t
7. The places of penal detention of moderate duration are houses of correction.
8. The places of penal detention of long duration are convict-prisons, {maisons-
deforce.)t
9. All prisons are divided, according to their localities, into : a, provincial ; Z», cen-
tral.
10. The provincial prisons are: a, police prisons; I, houses of justice ; c, jails; d,.
houses of amendment.
11. The central prisons are : a, houses of correction ; 6, convict-prisons.
12. The provincial prisons are considered, as regards revenue, unproductive.
* We have nothing in this country corresponding to the prisons here called arrets
They seem to answer most nearly to our county jails, particularly in that function of
these latter whereby they become places of punishment for persons convicted of trivial
offenses. But the main function of our jails is to serve as prisons of preliminary de-
tention. With this explanation, I translate the term arrets by our word jail, as our
language appears to afford no other. — E. C. W.
+ This is another class of prisons for which we have no equivalent. Both the thing
aud its designation are wanting with us. The proper translation would be " houses
of reformation," or " reformatory prisons ; " but, as will be seen, the term of imprison-
ment in them is limited to three months and they are intended to act by intimidation,
so that both the duration of the imprisonment aud the predominant agency to be em-
ployed are against the idea oi reformation, properly so called. The only thing I could
do, therefore, was to transfer, without translating, the original word amendment, and
leave the reader to interpret it for himself. — E. C. W.
t These correspond most nearly to our state-prisons and the English convict-
prisons, being intended for prisoners guilty of the more heinous crimes. The expres-
sion by which they are designated, maisons'de force, will be translated, in this version,.
convict-prisons. — E. C. W.
108 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
13. The central prisons are considered, as regards revenue, productive.
14. Besides the prisons above mentioned, there shall be established in the empire
Tefuges and penitentiary colonies for juvenile prisoners.
II. — OllGAXIZATIOX OF THE PlUSONS.
15. The reform and organization of the prisons of the empire shall be effected grad-
iially, but all the kinds and gradations shall be established simultaneously in the dif-
ferent provinces.
16. Imprisonments made by the police take place, in the districts, near the com-
munal administrations; in the cities, near the police-stations and their sections.
Oiservation. — The prisons may also serve for persons arrested by the administration.
17. Houses of justice for preliminary detention shall be established in the cities of
the provinces and of the districts, and 'in other localities, if necessary.
18. Houses of justice shall be established, as far as possible, in connection with edi-
fices devoted to judicial purposes.
19. Preliminary and penal prisons cannot be established in the same building.
20. Jails, {les arrets,) where punishment for light o&enses (contraventions) is under-
gone, shall be established in all cities, and in other localities, if necessary.
21. Houses of amendment shall be established in all provincial and district cities
where they are needed.
22. Houses of correction shall be established only in places where orders for the pro-
ducts of industrial labor are likely to be received.
23. Convict-prisons shall be established in the neighborhood of coal-beds, stone
quarries, salt-pits, and other localities suited to the organization of toilsome and pro-
ductive industries for long terms of imprisonment. The punishment of " bard labor"
(travaux forces) shall not be applied exclusively in countries outside the limits of Euro-
pean Russia, (Siberia.)
24. In the central prisons the establishment of hospitals is obligatory. In other
prisons, hospital treatment is to be provided as far as possible.
25. Baths and, if possible, hospitals for the prisoners shall be established within the
inclosure of the i)risons, but separate from the main buildings.
26. The houses of justice and of amendment require two courts— one for the admin-
istration, the other for the prisoners.
27. A third court for the work-shops is required in the central prisons.
28. Stores of wood, sheds for tools and farming implements, the cellars, the stables,
shall be placed outside the prison inclosure, in the court devoted to the general affairs
of the establishment.
29. Near the houses of justice, the jails, and the houses of amendment there shall be
arranged small gardens, in which the prisoners can take exercise.
30. Near the central prisons there shall bo allotments of ground for cultivation : for
houses of correction, not less than five acres per hundred i)risoners ; for convict prisons,
not less than twenty-seven acres per hundred ])ri.soners.
31. All the persons employed in tlio houses of justice, the houses of amendment, and
the central prisons, except the head of the establishment and the overseer-iu-chief,
(male or female,) shall have their lodgings in the court devoted to the-general affairs
of the establishment.
32. There shall be a space of ground not loss than twenty-three yards in width for a
circular road around the central prisons. This principle is not obligatory for the other
])riHon3.
III.— Discipline of the Prisons.
A. — General regulations,
33. The discipline of all the i)risonH shall have for its base the three following prin-
ciples: justice, gMardiaiislii|); nationality.
34. The system of discipline of all tlie prisons shall have in view: 1. For prisoners
awaiting trial — a, tln-ir complete sei»aration, to pii!V(!nt all connivance ; h, the preven-
tion of tiio asHociatioii of prisoners cliarg(5d witli olVcMises of different degrees of guilt;
r, the enjoyment of ;ill inivilcgos and comforts not inconsistent with the course of
jiisfice. 2. For iJiisoncrs nndcr Hcuteiice — <(, the just iiuiiishmont of the crimes of
wJiicli tli(;y have bei'ii judicially declared guilty; h, the exercise of a guardianship,
Avliich lias in view the destiny of the convicts after tlniir lil)eration.
From this last c.onsiileration arise the essential exigencies and special aims of the
Hystem : a, for jails, admonilion ; h, for liousos of amiMiduient, intimidation ; c, for
houses of correctiou, piinixlnnrnt, comldned with a system of education, of industrial
labor, and of preitaration of tiie prisoners for a return to society; d, for convict-prisons,
thantinrinrnl, witli toilsome labor, having in view the ulterior colonization of tho
convicts.
REFOEMri — RUSSIA. 109
35. Churches are obligatory in all central prisons. In other classes of prisons chap-
els only will be required. Images shall be iilacecl in all the rooms appropriated to
prisoners.
36. There shall be special regulations for each kind of imprisonment. These regula-
tions "will form a general code. °
Observation. — There shall be given, in addition, by a competent authority, personal
instructions to each head of a prison.
37. Every prisoner shall be placed in the kind of prison named in the sentence of
the court. . •
38. The provincial prisons may receive into the same building the two sexes under
the same administration, but the parts of the prison appropriated to each sex must be-
entirely separated from each other.
39. The central prisons, for each sex, must be separate and distinct establishments.
40. The system of association at night (and of beds on planks) is abolished. For the
houses of justice and of amendment there shall be the system of complete separation
between the prisoners ; for the central prisons, the system of separation, by night, in
common dormitories.*
41. In the prisons of preliminary detention, labor is not obligatory; it is obligatory
in all other classes of prisons.
4'2. All changes in the distribution or placing of prisoners during the day shall be
effected, in the penal prisons, by the ringing of a bell.
43. There shall be, in all peual prisons, modes of encouragement, consisting of privi-
leges granted to the prisoners.
44. There shall be, in all detention-prisons, a system of disciplinary punishments.
Corporal punishment shall be permitted only in convict-prisons. In all other prisons,
there shall be allowed only incarceration, more or less rigorous.
45. The masiuuim duration of imprisonment is fixed : a, for jails, at three months ;
&, for houses of amendment, at one year and four months; c, for housQSof correction,,
at one year to four j^ears ; d, for couvict-prisons, from six years to life.
46. In the cellular houses of amendment, the duration of imprisonment shall be re-
duced by one-third. t
47. The mode of transferring prisoners will be made the object of a special regula-
tion.
B. — Special regulations.
1. For ]iolice-imprisonments :
48. The detention-houses in the communes and police-districts have, for their end, only
to provide for the safe-keeping of persons awaiting examination.
49. Every person who has given occasion to a judicial prosecution shall be kept in
separate confinement, wherever it is possible.
50. Preliminary police-imprisonments shall be conformed to existing laws.
2. For imprisonments in houses of justice:
51. Wherever it is possible, conveyance to houses of justice shall take place in cellular
carriages. In cases where the prisoners are taken on foot, they shall have the right to
w^ear a hood on the head.
52. Individuals confined in houses of justice shall be placed at first in receiving-cells,,
from which they shall be taken, in rotation, to go through the formalities required by
law, to be submitted to the inspection of the doctor, and to undergo the prescribed
ablutions.
.53. The prisoners have the right to keep their own clothing, unless it is worn out or
too much soiled. In that case, they will be fiiruislied with clothing by the establish-
ment, but of different color and cut from that prescribed for convicts.
54. Photographs of prisoners shall be taken, it it is considered necessary.
55. Every article found on the prisoner, except his clothing, his shoes, and his linen,
together with his baptismal cross and marriage-ring, shall be talcen from him and kept
in a place devoted to that purpose. A receipt shall be given to the prisoner for the
money and eft'ects placed in this repository.
56. The cell of the prisoner must be, in its dimensions, not less than fifteen square
* An apparent contradiction ; but the arrangement seems to be this : The dormitories
are to be common, with small apartments, or cells, arranged round their walls, by
which the separation is effected. — E. C. W.
t Some members of the commission voted with the president. Count Sollohub, for a
reduction of two-thirds. . .
110 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
arclhics,'^ acd must contain at least three cubic sagenes* of air. Special care must be
given to tbe lighting and ventilation of the cell. i
57. It is permitted to prisoners to have their beds, furniture, books, and , writing-
materials.
5S. Prisoners vrbo desire to work shall be encouraged therein. Three-fourths of their
earnings, after deducting the cost of material, shall belong to the prisoner. The other
fourth shall be deemed the revenue of the establishment, for the purchase of tools,
materials, «&sc. ,
59. The prisoners shall have the legal rations of the prison and shall receive half a
pound of meat per day ; but they have the right to better diet, if they have the means
of paying for it.
00. Prisoners have the right to smoke, but this privilege shall be witbdrawn from
those who use fire imprudently.
61. The prisoners shall have the right to take exercise, but their head must be cov-
ered with a hood, and they must walk five paces apart.
62. Interviews with relatives and visitors will be permitted only with the sanction
of the counsel of the government, who v/ill arrange the conditions of these interviews.
G'i. The chaplain of the prison is bound to visit each xu-isoner at least twice a week,
and oftener if it is thought necessary.
64. The counsel of the prisoner shall have free admission to him at all times.
65. Persons sentenced by the court shall await the issue of their appeal, or the exe-
cution of their sentence, in the cells where they were previously confined, but they
shall be deprived of all the privileges before accorded to them.
3. For iails:
66. Punishment in jails shall be undergone in virtue of the imperial decree of the
4th July, 1666. I
4. For houses of amendment :
67. Sections 51, 52, and 62, relating to bouses of justice, shall be applied to the
houses of amendment.
68. The prisoners shall wear the prescribed dress.
69. The prisoners can neither smoke nor make use of their money.
70. The prisoners will be required to work eight hours a day at task-work. Two-
1 birds of their earnings will belong to the establishment; the remaining third shall be
placed to the credit of the jnisoner, but he will not be permitted to use it till after bis
iil)erati()n.
71. Alf prisoners shall have the same rations.
72. Th(; dimensions of the cells shall not exceed fifteen square arehines.
73. Interviews with persons from outside shall not exceed one per month. The visits
of the chaplain, the doctor, the officers, and of members of j)hilaTitliroi)ic societies, are
not subject to this regulation.
74. Prisoners shall be permilted to work over and above their task and beyond
Ihe hours i)rescribed. The amount of this- additional work shall be ]}laced to their
credit.
75. Prisoners who shall have finished their terms shall be immediately liberated.
5. For houses of correction :
76. The term of imprisonment is from one year ^minimum) to four years, (maximum,)
without romiffsion.
77. TJie prisoner confined in a house of correction shall undergo a preliminary cel-
lular imprisonment, whose duration shall be fixed by the court. If tliis duration is
not meiilioiied in tlie sentence, tlic prisoner shall be isolated only during the legal
lerni. In l)oMi cases the administration has the right to reduce the period of comidete
isolation to lh(! ininimum fixed by tlu' law.t
7H. The syslciti fur houses of (•(urcc) ion, in lis rigor, shall be that of work in associ-
alion l>y «lay and (>f s(|)araiion )>y night.
79. Every person confined in .-i house of correction is bound to work ten hours a day
witiiont rfceiving any part of his cariiiiigs. This hibor is employed in domestic serv-
ice, laundry-work, and tillage. 'J'he prodiwt of this lahor is applied to the support of
l,hf) [irison.
80. 'J'he dnralion of this labor may be reduced to four hours a day, if the prisoner
oxprcHHCH a desiro to occupy himself during the other 8i.x. hours in mechanical labors
^ • An ardiine is a Russian measure of about tw o-thirds of a yard, and a sagrnc of about
two yards and one-third. — E. C. W.
f 'I'his ])aragraph was strongly confested. NevcrtlKilesH, the opinion that a i)e.riod of
|)rclimiiji»iy isolation is unnecessary did not obtain a majority of votes.
REFORMS RUSSIA. Ill
Tvhich require no special knowledge. This is callerl "meclianical work," (travail mi-
canique.) A third of his earnings when thus engaged goes to the workman; the other
two-thirds are to the profit of tlie prison.
81. Those who do not desire to work ten hours a da>y at " rough " work, nor sis hours at
"mechanical" work, may learn any trade they prefer, whicli requires an effort of will
and a sustained study. This is called " professional work," {travail jyrofcssionel.) Those
who are learning a trade receive no benefit from their labor, and, in addition to eight
hours given daily to their apprenticeship, must spend two liours ou "rough" work.
82. As soon as a prisoner becomes master of a trade, he shall receive two-thirda of
all he earns ; the remaining third is applied to the profit of the prison.
83. Any prisoner who already knows a trade on his arrival at the house of correc-
tion shall receive one-half the earnings of his labor; the other half shall go to the
profit of the establishment.
84. The foremen and apprentices of each trade constitute a distinct section.
85. The Y>ersons who supply constant orders to the sections are denominated cura-
tors (curatenrs) of the sections.
Observation. — The director of the pi'ison can have work done, in exceptional cases,
conformably to the regulations mentioned above.
86. The rights and duties of the guardians (tuteurs) of the sections shall be regulated
by law.
87. The curators of the sections shall settle weekly their accounts with the director
•of the prison iu cash, and the sums due to the prisoners who have become master-work-
men, for their labor, shall be inclosed in the portfolios of each section separately.
These portfolios shall be kept in a s^iecial case, which is itself locked up in the strong
box of the government.
88. The key of the case which contains the money of the prisoners shall be kept by
the cashier, chosen by the sections. It shall be the duty of the cashier to be present at the
weekly settlements between the curators of the sections and the sections themselves.
89. No prisoner may keep his own money, nor exact, under any pretext, what has
been set to his account under the name of profit. He receives only a little book, in
which is kept the account of the product of his labor for each week.
90. As an exceptional encouragement to industry and good conduct, one-fourth of
their gains maj' be allowed to the sections for the purchase, through the agency of an
inspector, of tea and any other authorized article.
91. Each section will choose a chief, who shall be responsible for the order of the
section.
92. Each section shall be responsible for the escape of its foreman, and, in case of
such escape, the said section shall forfeit its profits.
93. The monitor, the inspector of the prison, and the chief shall be resiionsible for
the order of each section during the hours of work.
94. The movements of the prisoners will take place by couples, in military order, at
the word of command and at the hours indicated.
95. A school shall be established in every house of correction.
96. The time spent in school shall be counted as time spent at "rough work," (travail
<]romer.)
97. On Sundays and holidays, after mass, the chaplain and the professors attached,
to the prison shall hold conferences with the prisoners ; these conferences shall relate
to religion, sacred liistory, geography, and scientific subjects.
9.8. During the night the prisoners shall be confined in separate cell's, from which no
one can go out without leave from the director of the prison. Silence is obligatory at
night. The inspector is charged witk the duty of supervision. The dormitories must
be kept lighted.
99. Interviews with relatives and strangers shall be permitted at the times indica-
ted by the regulations.
100. When the term of the imprisonment ends, there shall be given, from the cash-
box, to those liberated, the money earned by them, after which no interview shall be
permitted them, under any pretext, with their former comrades.
6. For convict-prisons :
101. Convict-prisons shall be established for the imprisonment of all persons con-
victed of felonies.
102. The convict, who shall have merited, by his Industry and good conduct, an abbre-
viation of his imprisonment, may obtain it on the order of the administration of the
prison, but not before he shall have undergone two-thirds of his punishment.
103. The prisoners who have not deserved an abbreviation of their sentences shall
undergo in the convict-prison the entire punishment to which they shall have been
sentenced.
104. Those prisoners who serve out- their whole time are called convicts ; those who
have merited a shortening of their punishment receive the designation o£ improved.
105. In order to a transfer from the class of "convicts" to that of the " inqn-oved,"
112 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
the prisoner, in addition to good conduct, must have earned a sum determined by the
regulation.
106. In case of ill-conduct and indolence, the "improved" prisoner is again placed in
the class of "convicts."
107. The prisoner, on his admission to the convict-prison, shall be isolated from fif-
teen days to a month, according to the determination of the administration.
108. Tiie families 6f prisoners are not admitted into the convict-prisons.
109. The convict-prisons are adapted to hard labor.
110. The work is subdivided into "hard labor" and "prison-work."
111. The "hard labor" is performed by the convicts in chains, which must be made
according to the legal model; the "prison-work" is done without chains.
Observation. — The chains may be removed, even during the execution of" hard labor,"
by permission of the director, in testimony of his confidence. The chains shall be
re-imposed on those who show themselves unworthy of this indulgence.
112. The convict-prisons should be established in localities which offer guarantee.?
for hard labor, such labor constituting the punishment of the convicts. These guaran-
tees are always necessary, and should be independent of accidents.
113. The convict-prisons shall be established only in localities aff'ording ready com-
munisation, or offering facilities for the sale of the products of prison labor on the
spot.
114. The industries for which the convict-prison is adapted may belong to the gov-
ernment, or to a company or private person, if the latter can offer the requisite guar-
antees.
115. The administration of the prison shall not interfere with the industries.
116. The convicts form only the motive-power of the industries.
Ohservaiion. — Payment of the laborers shall be made at the times fixed by the con-
tract and in cash.
117. The places where the labor is performed shall not be more than 3^ miles distant
from the prison.
118. No convict can remain during the night outside of the prison inclosure.
119. The duration of hard labor shall be fixed at twelve hours per day in summer
and ten in winter.
1'20. The administration of the prison reserves a certain number of prisoners to be
employed, in rotation, in farm-labor, trades, and the domestic service of the prison,
conformably to a special regulation.
121. Convict-labor may be of two categories : 1, obligatory, for a fixed number of
hours per day ; 2, voluntary.
122. The product of obligatory labor belongs to the establishment.
123. The product of voluntary labor forms a personal income, which is paid to the
prisoner on his liberation.
124. The prisoners may not engage in voluntary labor till they have finished their
daily task of "hard labor" or "prison-labor."
125. The director of the prison, in conjunction with the directors of the industries,
shall determine the tasks to be performed by the convicts.
126. The tasks allotted shall be performed by order of the administration.
127. The administration of the prison must see that the prisoners do the full quantity
of work assigned.
128. The prisoner may engage in voluntary labor on account of the director of the
industries, or at some mechanical occupation, as he shall elect.
129. Prisoners under short sentences shall receive higher pay for voluntary labor thau
tliose sent<;nced to long terms.
130. During the Iu)nrs of labor, the prisoners shall be superintended by the inspect-
ficH, and by tiie chiefs of sections, clidsen by tliemselves. Tiio work is to be performed
under tlie direction of persons clnirged with tiiat fluty by the directors of the industries.
131. According to tlio nature of tiio work, the convicts may separate into sections,
under jiledge, ofalistaining from all disorder.
132. The regulations for sections in houses of correction may bo adapted to couvict-
prJHonerH.
i:{3. One-fourth of the personal earnings of the convicts may be used in aiding their
r«iniilies.
131. Hetween imiJrisoiunent in convict-prisons and the definitive establishment of
tiie lii)eratc<l )>riHoncrs in a country named by the government, the convicts will pass
into a teiniiorary CHtalilislinient under the form of an agricultural penitentiary colony,
where tiiey may be pr<-pared Cor their fntnr*! alKxh'.
135. The penitentiary eoh)nies Nhall b(! cHtalilished in districts selected and set apart
to lie, defmilivcly peojded liy liherated convict.s.
Klf!. fliiniinalH who have passed into the class of the "improved" shall be trans-
ferred to the j)enite,ntiary colony of the government, if tiiey have earned the autn nece.s-
H.'iry to colonization. Those who have not earned the requisite sum must renraiu in
prison till they have, without, however; passing the term fixed by their sentence.
REFORMS SUGGESTED — SWITZERLAND UXITED STATES. 113
137. The convicts sent into the peniteutiaiy colonics of the government shall remain
there till the date indicated by the sentence. Nevertheless, the term of the sentence
luaj' be reduced by the authority of the colony. Criminals who have nnderjijone their
entire sentence iu the convict-prison must still pass one j-ear in the colony of the
goveninient.
138. Labor is obligatory in the penitentiary colonies. It must be performed accord-
ing to the orders ai!il under the direction of tlie authorities of the crtlony.
139. Any person discharged from the penitentiary cohniy may choose, according to
liis liking, the place of his definitive abode, but not without the limits or the frontier
of the same country.
140. Prisoners sent to the colonies may be followed by their families.
141. The laws and regulations for the colonies shall be fixed by special decree.
The princii)les relating to finance and to the mode of administration proposed by this
projct, being based on local considerations, cannot, as a matter of course, be set forth iu
the present writing.
§ 8. The Swiss report limits itself to a short resume of the reforms
thou,iiht to be needed, as follows :
1. The uiiilication of the peual code, based ou the priiiciide of the
moral reformatiou of prisoners.
2. The reforui of prisons for i^ersons awaiting trial.
3. The increase of the number of reformatories for juvenile delinquents
and vicious bo^s, and also the reform of work-houses and houses of cor-
rection for vagrants and idlers.
4. The erection of penitentiaries in cantons which have only the old-
fashioned prisons, which are incapable of proper transformations. Two
or more cantons, it is thought, might come to an agreement to establish
a penitentiary in common, or they nsight make arrangements with a
caiitou which already has one, or found other establishments to be used
as intermediate prisons, agreeably to the progressive Crofton prison
system.
5. The special education of prison officers and employes.
6. The reform of the disciplinary and educational regime of the peni-
tentiaries, with a view to the moral regeneration of the prisoners.
7. The direction and supervision, not only of the administration of all
the prisons, but also of preventive institutions, (such as public assist-
ance, orphan-houses, agricultural colonies, retuges, patronage societies,
&c.,) in the hands of special oflicers of the government.
8. The united action of the state and voluntary philanthropic societies
and societies of ])ubiic utility.
9. Finally, the perfecting of all institutions whose aim is the preven-
tion of crime, whether in the domain of education, social condition, &c.,
or that of police and of justice.
§ 9. The tendency of thought in the United States on the question of
prison reform is toward the Crofton system, which, in proportion as it
is understood, is, year by year, gaining friends and adherents. Xo State
has yet introduced it fully, or even its main features; but it can hardly
be many years before this will be done. No doubt some injustice has
been done in the United States to the cellular system, but the intro-
duction of the Crofton plan may permit us to use the more desirable
features of that system. The great evil in our minor prisons and iu
many of those of the higher grade is that there is no system at all, but
a mixture of routine and caprice in the prison administration, from
which good results can come only by hazard or by miracle. Particu-
larly is this true in regard to female prisons, and in the whole United
States there is scarcely a single good woman's prison. Considering
the number and excellence of our reformatories for girls, this is the
more astonishing. Eftbrts are making in several States to establish
special prisons for women, which will no doubt prove successful in the
end; and, in some, the day for this reform hastens.
H. Ex. 185 8
114 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIAEY CONGEESS.
CHAPTEE XV.
JUV.ENILE REFOEMATORIES.
Host of tlie sets of qnestions sent out did not, tlirougli a mischance
in the office where they were jjiinted, contain any interrogatory rehitin^
to juvenile reformatories. This fact will account for the small number
of countries which furnished the congress witli information on this
most important branch of the work looking to the prevention of crime.
§ 1. In Denmark there are three educational establishments for neg-
lected and misguided boys, with an aggregate of about one hundred and
sixty inmates. Besides these, th^re is a society which undertakes to
have children placed in families. The latter has worked with great suc-
cess.
§ 2. Saxony has had, for above a generation, two reformatories for
the education and reformation of children of both s<3xes, besides a house
of correction for young persons aged from sixteen to twenty years.
The industrial occupation in these houses is agriculture, but mechan-
ical occupation for the Mants of the reformatory itself is not excluded.
The adnjission of children takes phice mostly at the request of their
relations, of societies, or of police authorities, who are asked to contribute
a small sum of money. Children uj) to twelve years, and young persons
up to eighteen years of age, are ])laced under this reformatory treatment.
According to age, school-instruction, occupation in the field .and garden,
and domestic work are the means of education. At tlie proi)er time, those
promoted for good conduct are first sent into agricultural or domestic
service, or apprenticed to tradesmen, under pro];)er supervision, by the
authorities of the reformatory. Conditional libeiation must, as a rule,
precede complete freedom. Well-disposed inmates of the reformatories,
of the age of less than twelve years, are sent to board in carefully-chosen
families, the reformatory paying for the board. Even these have to
undergo a period of conditional lil)eration before attaining full freedom.
The term of probation for children is at least two years ; that of young-
people, one year. The results obtained in these reformatories, since
1S5(), have shown that su(;h as \Yere liberated after a ])robationaTy period,
and who on account of rela])se were sent again into the penitentiary,
amounted to oidy 7 per cent. Keformatories and houses of safety,
(asylums.) established and supported by societies or by associations,
endeavor to reform neglected childnni by giving them domestic disci-
])line and separate or pnl^lic schooling. They mostly keep the children
till they are Jonrteen years of age. Unmanageable (;liildren are sent for
further education to the above-mentioned scate reformatories. The num-
ber admitted into the stale reformatories amounted, in the year 1871,
to three hundred and f(uty-five children ami to thirty one young per-
sons. Tlu; nund)er of inmates in asylums, «Sic., during the year 1871,
is estinmtj'd to be about two hundr<'d.
§;j. 'J'hc estal)lishm(Mits devoted to the (torrectional education of juve-
nile d('lin(pienls in J^'ram-.e icceivc^ minors of sixlecMi years ami under, of
both sexes. 1'liey ai'e divi<led, for young m;dei»rison<'rs, into penitentiary
colonies and <;orre(;lion;d <'oh)nies. In tln^ (irst are ))laced : 1, children
^U'<pii(led ashavingacfed without knowledge, but who arenot sent back to
their jtarents; li, young prisoners sentenced to ;in impiisonment of more
tlian six months and not, exceeding two years. 'I'hese establishments
4ir('iiid>lic or private: public, when they lia\e been founded by the state, and
the stale names and pays the directors and employes; and private when
REFORMATORIES FRANCE ITALY SWITZERLAND, ETC. 115
tliey are fouiKled and directed by private persons, with the authoriza-
tion of- the state. The correctional colonies receive: 1, youn^ prison-
ers sentenced to an iin[)risonnieut of more than two years; 2, yonn^
prisoners from the ijcuitentiary colonies who have been dcxthired insub-
ordinate. The correctional colonies are all jmblie establislunents.
A similar classiiication has been established for young female prison-
ers. They are received either in a correctional ward directed by the
state, or into pemit«ntiary houses connected with religious establishments.
Of penitentiary an<l correctional colonies for boys, tiie number is thirty-
iwo, three being public colonies, four correctional wards, and twenty-
five private colonies. Of establishments devoted to young female pris-
oners, there are twenty, one of which is directed by the state; the rest
are private.
§ 4. The number of reformatories in Italy is thirty-three, of which
twenty-two are for boys and nine for girls. They are rather of an educa-
tive than punitive nature. Tliey are entirely private in their charac-
ter, having been instituted either b}' individual benevolence or by
charitable associations. Grovernment makes use of them for those
juveniles who fall under the censure of police-law {pnhblica sicure.zza) for
idleness or vagrancy ; also, for the detention of those who are i)laced in
them for correction by paternal authority. Ot these establishmeiits,
tweuty-tive are industrial and six agricultural. Their discipline not being
as severe as that in the houses of custody, government makes use of
them also as a reward, gathering into them those minors who, having
been overtaken by penal law, have shown an exemplary behavior.
The average number of juveniles sheltered in the reformatories in
1870 was 2,208, of whom 1,805 were boys and 373 girls. The total
number on the 31st December, of the same year, was 2,465, of whom
2,0BG were boys and 399 girls, thus classified : For idleness and vagrancy,
boys, 1,931; girls, 399. Paternal discipline, boys, 135; girl, 0. Parents
are under no obligation to provide for the maintenance of a child who is
confined in a reformatory for idleness or vagrancy; but when a father
places him in one of these establishments for correction, the state
charges him with 36 cents per day. He is, however, exonerated in part
or entirely from his charge, if he can prove himself indigent.
§ 5. The number of reformatory institutions in Switzerland destined
to the treatment of juvenile delinquents is seventy, besides certain es*-
tablishmentvS founded by Messrs. Kich'ter-Lindor, Zellweger, and others,
the number of which is not stated. Only four of these have been founded
by the state; all the rest by charitable citizens, by societies of public
utility, or b^^ religious and philanthropic associations. The average
number of inmates in these establishments in 1870 was 2,573, of whom
1,472 were boys and 1,101 girls.
§ 6. The first American reformatory, and still the largest one, was the
New York House of Eefuge, opened in 1825, It grew out of the eftorts
made by Edward Livingston and other enlightened philanthrophists,
to train the young in cities to a life of honest industry. In 1826, a
similar reformatory was oi)ened in Boston ; and in 1828, another in Phila-
delphia. All these establishments received boys under sentence, and
were supported, in whole or in part, by grants from the public revenue.
They were not managed by the State directly, however, nor did they
become a component part of the penal system of the State where they
existed. The first step in this direction was taken by Massachusetts, in
1847, when the State Eeform School at Westborough was established
by law. Since 1847 — that is, in the last twenty-five years — the policy
thus initiated has been carried far forward, and is now adopted in more
116 IIsTERXATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGEESS.
than ball the States of tlie Union. Eeforniatories, either wholly de])eud-
ent on the States or materially aided by them, exist now in Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, IMassachusetts, Ehode Island, Connecticut, New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, District of Columbia,
Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and California,
■while otlier semi-public reformatories, under municipal or j)rivate man-
agement, are found in these States, and in Missouri, Kentucky, Loui-
siana, &c., that is, in States containing an aggregate of at least 25,000,000
people. The number of large reformatories in these States must exceed
forty, while the smaller establishnjents are still more numerous. Tiie
average number of reformatory pupils, in 1871, cannot have been less
than 12,000, of whom more than 1,000 were girls; nor does this include
the strictly educational or })reveutive establishments, like the State
Primary School for poor children, at Monson, Massachusetts, the Boston
Farm School, and many other such schools, in which it is probable there
are as many more children, (say 12,000,) in all parts of the country.
The general results of these reformatory and i-reveutive schools are
good, as has been intimated. Of the estimated 12,000 in reformatories,
strictly so termed, at least 00 per cent, will probably be trained into good
citizens. Some would claim more than this, say 75 or 80 per cent., but
there are no statistics that quite bear out this claim. Perhaps the per-
centage of v.'orthy citizens trained up among the whole 21,000 in preven-
tive and reformator}' schools would be as high as 75.
In some of the States, parents ma)/ be held reapousible for the support
of their children in reformatories, at least in part, but this provision of law
is seldom enforced. A largo majority of the children are either orphans,
abandoned children, or of such poor parents that little or nothing can
be collected from them. In some of the private Catholic reformatories,
it is understood that the payjuent of board by parents and kindred is
strictly enforced, so far as i)racticable. There is, however, far less de-
sire to throw children on the i)ublic for support, in this manner, in
America than in England or France.
§'7. An extended and very satisfactory paper on the reformatory sys-
tem of Great Britain was furnished by llev. Sydney Turner, inspector
of reformatory and industrial schools. The substance of this paper,
Hlightly moditicd, is given below.
Tile ivformatory system of Great Britain was not created by the laws
which now regulate its operation, but was itself the occasion and source
of those laws. The condition of Llie younger classes of criminals engaged
tlie att<'ntion of many persons interested in the social improvement of the
community for many years before any changes were effected in the laws
relating to them. It was not until the efforts of private zeal and
benevolence liad sliown, by actual experiment, that reformatory schools
could bo (jstablishcd and worked succ(\ssfnlly, that the legislature was
induced to pass the acts whi(;h gave Hn(^h schools their [)resent recog-
nized status, sanctioned their being lai'gely supi)orte<l by the government,
and allow»Ml magistrates to send ciuldicn for detention in them.
Al)out a <;entniy agoa chaiitable association, called the Philanthropic
Society, founded a scliool lor the reform ol' Juvenile delincpicnts and for
the pi()te<;tion and training of the. destiluie children ot (convicts, in the
neiglilxtiliood of London, This was CoIIowihI at a later i)eriod by two
or tliie,esom(nvhat similar insi itulions in liondon and elsinvhere, of which
one, a, small school at Stretton-onDiinsmore, in Warwickshire, was
remarkable as tin^ tirst at which it was atiem|>ted to ingraft farm and
out-door labor into the indnstiial training (tfthe inmates.
In 18.'>S, an a<;t was [lasst'd lor the establishment of a separate prison
REFORMATORIES ENGLAND. 117
for offenders under the ai?e of sixteen, at Parkburst, in tbe Isle of Wifjht.
Land was attaclied to this for cultivation by the inmates, and the dis-
cipline was intended to he of a specially edueational and reformatory
character. By a clause in this a(;t, the Queen was empowered to grant
pardons to such young oifen<lers as nught be desirous of an opportunity
of reformation, oil condition of their entering some benevolent insti-
tution of tiie reformatory chiss, renmining in it, and being subject to
its reguhitions till duly discharged therefrom. Under this clause a con-
siderable number of young offenders under sentence of transportation
or imprisonuient were received into such reformatory institutions as then
existed.
In 1847, the attention of the managers of the Philanthropic Society was
drawn to the remarkable effort of Monsieur Demetz and others in France,
for the establishment of iiu agricultural reformatory, without walls or
sentries, for French juvenile delinquents, at Mettray, near Tours, Being
then the superintemlent or director of the Philanthropic Institution, Mr.
Turner visited Mettray, reported on its arrangements and system of
management, ajid induced the directors and supporters of the society to
attempt a similar experiment in England. The Philanthropic Farm
School at Redhill, Surrey, which Mr. Turner thus established and organ-
ized, and which he directed until appointed, in 1S57, to the ofQce of in-
spector of reformatories, was the fruit of this movement. It was fol-
lowed by smaller schools on similar principles of domestic management —
absence of walls and warders and the use of outdoor employment —
founded by Mr. Barwick Baker, at Hardwicke, in Gloucestershire; Mr.
Adderley and Mr, Joseph Sturge, near Birmingham; Mr. Compton, in
Hampshire; and Miss Carpenter, at Bristol.
The additional impulse thus given to the public interest in the ques-
tion " how juvenile delinquency should be dealt with" led to the assem-
bling of a conference at Biruiingham of those most interested in the
subject in 1853, and the results of this were the reformatory schools act
for Great Britain and the industrial schools act for Scotland of 1854.
Under the first of these, which was brought in by ^Ir. (now the Eight
Honorable Sir Charles) Adderley, the secretary of state was empowered
to license reformatory schools approved by him and to make an allow-
ance for the maintenance of the young offenders committed for deten-
tion in thenu Powers were givesi to courts of assize and quarter
sessions, and to two magistrates acting iu petty sessions, or to any sti-
pendiary magistrate, acting alone, to commit young offenders, under six-
teen years of age, to such schools for any term of detention, not less
than two nor more than five years. The managers of the schools were
invested with the necessary powers of control, and the inspection and
general supervision of the schools by the secretary of the home depart-
ment were ])rovided for.
Under the second act, introduced by the late Mr. Dunlop, destitute
and vagrant children, under fourteen years old, in Scotlnnd, were simi-
larly ])rovided for in industrial atid ragged schools. Such schools were
partly under the supervision of tlie committee of education of the privy
council and received what government aid they had from the education-
grant.
In the same year, 1854, a special act was obtained by the magistrates
of the county of Middlesex, enabling them to erect an industrial school
for that county, (including the greater part of Loudon,) to which young
offenders under fourteen years of age might be committed for three
years' detention. The school erected under this act has since been cer-
tified under the general act of 180G.
118 INTEENATIONAL PENITENTIAKY CONGRESS.
A most valuable proTisioii iu botb the acts allows of the inmates of
tbe scliools being placed out on probation before tbe expiration of their
sentence of detention under a license from the managers of the school,
liable to be revoked for misconduct.
The prison authorities of counties awd boroughs are empowered to
contribute to the schools by grants from the county or borough rates.
Such grants in 1870 exceeded £40,000. The schools are m general more
or less aided also by voluntary contributions.
The results of botb the reformatory and the iDdustrial schools have
been very encouraging. In many schools of either class 80 per cent,
and ui)\Yard of the inmates have turned out well after their discharge,
and the general average for all has reached nearly 70. These re-
sults are taken from the returns which the ma,nagers of each school
have to make for the tbree years succeeding each inmate's discharge of
his or lier character and circumstances. They would certainly be still
more fiivorable if there were more etiectnul powers iu the acts for re-
straining the after-interference of the child's friends and relatives.
Tlie results of the operations of the reformatory and industrii^l schools
must not, however, be judged of only by the proi>ortion of those received
into them who turn out afterward honest and industrious, reformed from
the criminal habits or weaned from the vagrant disorderly dispositions
with which they were growing up to be dangerous in themselves and.
instruments for corrupting others.
The results are seen still more decisively in the diminution of the
numbers of the younger classes of criminals and the lighter character
of the crimes with which our juvenile oiienders are now more commonlj-
convicted.
In the year 1856, when the reformatory school system began to be
in more active operation, the number of juvenile offenders [i. e., boys
and girls under sixteen years old) comnutted to prison (for the twelve
months ended September 2i>) was 13,9SL ; in 1S5S, when the systeiu
had spread and taken root, the number sank to 7,022; and in 1870, m
s))ite of the very large increase of our population, and especially of t\ui
pojjulation of our larger towns, friuu which juvenile crime draws its
m(jst numerous recruits, the number of young offoidcrs committed was
but 1)/J08, tl)e number of adult commitments having advanced fron^
00,7;")5, in 18i">(>, to 147,225, in 1870 — an inci'ease of aljove 50 per cent.
Tliere is no doubt that the reformatory school system, laying hold on
a)id j)lacing under loiig corrective discii)line and training the boys anc^
girls who had become familiar with ciime and adej)ts iu its piactice,
not only in a jnajority of cases reformed the individual, but broke up
those Hchooh of crime and vice which were becoming so formidable.
The change in the type or character of the young offenders themselves,
who are laid hold of by the system, is as remarkable as the falling otl'iii
their numbers. The clever, ex]>erienced ))ickpocket, with his five or six
satellites or apj)rentices, convicted, jterhaps, six or seven times, and
laughing at the offers of jeju-ntance and the, opportunities of honest life
ollered to liim, has tlis;i})|»e;ii<d. 'The inmates of the refoi inatories are
jiow cliietly an I rained or ill-tiained children, with little (;rimiiial science.,
and generally mueii moie dull and imlolent than sharp or active, tho
)»i(»(lMcts of negleited e«lncation and loose liunte disi',i)>line rather than
of criminal training or of special criminal disposition.
The results of the industrial schools so far tend in the same ilirec'tion,
tlie (-xtinction, thatis, of the vagabonil and liall-thievish class they were
originally designed to deal with, and llic substitution in its stead o4'
merely poor and neglected chikheu, u Uiige propoitiou of whom might
REFORMATOEIE.S ENGLAND. 119
be effectually cared for by a good system of day-feediug schools —
schools ill which they might be kept throughout the day, so as to be
taiieti out of the streets, and the oversight and traiuiug sup[)lied which
the circumstances aud cmi)loyaieutsof their parents i>reveut them from
receiving at home.
The whole uuniber of young offenders committed to reformatory
schools since the passing of the iirst reformatory schools act in 1854
amounted at the end of 1870 to 21,991 in Great Britain, and, of children
sent to industrial schools, to 11,151.
The reformatory schools act was amended by successive statutes in
1855 and 185G, and an industrial schools act was passed for England in
1857 and amended aud enlarged in 18()L By this last act industrial
schools for botli England and Scothind were placed under the home
office, and an allowance for the maintenance of the inmates from the
treasury, similar to that given to reformatory schools, provided for.
In 18G0 the reformatory and industrial schools acts, now in force, were
passed, and the system uov/ in operation finally sanctioned and defined,
similar but separate statutes being enacted for Ireland in 1858 and 1S()8.
Under these acts, the number of reformatory schools in Great Britain
bad increased by December 31, 1870, to 64, containing 5.133 actual in-
mates, and that of industrial schools to 91, containing 8,280 inmates.
Adding to those the numbers who were out on license or absent by de-
sertion, &c.; the total number of young offenders under sentence of de-
tention in reformatories was 0,502, and of children sent to industrial
schools was 8,788.
The distinction between reformatory and industrial schools is that
the first are more directly for correction and the second for prevention.
No boy or girl can be committed to a reformatory school unless con-
victed of some positive offense, punishable by imprisonment or penal
servitude, and sent in the first instance for not less than ten days to jail.
They must be under sixteen years of age and above ten years, unless
previously convicted or sentenced at a superior court.
On the other hand, the industrial school is for destitute and vagrant
children, found begging or wandering, without home or visible means of
subsistence or proper guardianship. Such children must be under
fourteen years old, and they are sent direct to the school, and do
not pass through the jail. Oiiildreu uncontrollable by their parents
can be sent to them on their parents' application, but for snch childreu
the treasury allowance is limited to two shillings per week. Children
under twelve years old, who are guilty of any petty offense, caii be also
sent to them, instead of being committed to prison and a reformatory,
at the magistrate's discretion.
The allowance from the treasury for inmates of reformatories is six
shillings per week ; for inmates of industrial schools above ten years
old, five shillings; under ten years, three shillings. For the year 1870
the total amount of the treasury payments was £177,381, the total ex-
penditure of the schools being £311,791.
The fundamental principles on which the reformatory system is based
are thus stated by Mr. Turner:
1. The iinioii of private and hencrolcnt agency with government super-
vision and support.
All the reformatory schools, and, with two exceptions, all the indus-
trial schools now in operation, have been established and were at first
materially sujiported by voluntary contributions. Many of them still
derive a portion of their income from pri\ate sources, and all are man
120 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
aged by committees or individuals appointed by the subscribers and
contributors by whom tbey were founded.
The government interferes as little as possible with the ordinary su-
perintendence, prescribing certain regulations as to the lodging, cloth-
ing, and feeding of the inmates of the schools, and as to the instruction
they receive and the discipline they are subjected to ; but leaving all
the details of the management, the appointment of the officers, the
admission of inmates, the expenditure, &c,, to the committee. The
state may be said to contract on certain terms with the several insti-
tutions for the work which it wants done, and so long as the work is
fairly performed it exercises no further interference.
Important advantages accrue from this arrangement. A far greater
degree of freedom and elasticity is secured to the working of the sys-
tem ; much of the merely n)e(ihanical routine which is inseparable from
government establishments is dispensed with ; the schools are more
thoroughly adapted to the <lifferent localities they are planted in ; a
greater variety of moral and social influences is brought to bear upon
their inmates ; religious interest and zeal, without which little impres-
sion can be hoped for, are enlisted ; and economy in the expendiinre and
efficiency in the industrial training of the schools are more thoroughly
insured. Two advantages, uot otherwise attainable, are especially se-
cured : the one, the freedon» of the religions teaching of the inmates:
the other, their disposal in the world when discharged from the schools.
If the state founded and aduiinistered the schools, what is called the
religious difficulty would be met v.ith at the very outset, and each dif-
fering section of the religious community would be struggling for the
assertion of its own peculiar views and practices, or protesting against
those of others. But all tlsis is avoided by the employment of the vol-
untary system under goveiiimeut supervision and through government
aid.
lieformatory or industrial schools may be established in connection
uith any of our different religions bodies, and, in ])oint of fact, we have
schools founded and managt'd by Presbyterians, Ivoman Catholics, and
jnembers of the Society of Fric^nds. But the law secures the religious
rights and liberties of the (liiihiren by enacting that, if the managers of
any school receive a child of a ditlerent religious denomiiiation from that
of the school, they shall allow a minister of the child's denomination to
attend and instruct it, and the rules, which are sanctioned by the secre-
tary of state, prescribe that such a (ihild shall not ho required to learn
the catechism or to be instructed in the do(;trines of any other persua-
sion than its own. The same rules provide generally that the children
in the school shall receive daily religious instruction agreeably to the
demimination of the s(;hool, and shall have reguhir 0[)portnnities of
worsiiip on the Sunday.
The otiier advantage following the n>ingling of ])ublic and private
agejicy in the lelbrmatory system is the better and easier disposal of
the inmates on tluMr disciiarge. W the scihools were a(]minisrered by
the state, it is believe*! that they must inevitably take more or less of
the ibrm and complexion of prisons, and thc^ boys and girls (b"s(';harged
from them would \h', looke<l on with the same sort of distrust and sus-
l)icion that alta<;h to discimrge<l convicsts.
2. A Hcconil e.sscntlnl ]>riiuuj)le of the IJufjIis'h reformatory syfitem is tJie
Kse of moral in prrfrrcnrc to phynicitl discipline.
The institutions are organized and carried on ess(Mitially as fiohoolSy
not liouses of conlinemcnt or (;orre(;tion, the greatest degree of per-
sonal liberty ami ficcdom of a(;tion l)eing allowed that is comjiatible
with real personal supervision an<l the exaction of prompt and strict
REFORMATORIES ENGLAND, 121
obedieuco. Most of the reformatories are foiiiuled on the phiii of farm-
schools, with a^ricnltnral hibor as the cliief employment. There are no
walls, no warders, no sentries. The men who have charge of the work-
ing- parties usually work with the boys, guiding and instructing them
in their labor, while they overlook them and report on them as to their
coudnct. The boys are taught to hold themselves responsible, and to
regulate their own conduct as far as i)ossible by a system of rewards
(or marks) for labor and improvement, and fines for misconduct and
idleness, which tliey are fully acquainted with, and by acting on which
they can increase tlie comforts of their position, avoid punishment, and
effectively advance their final liberation. Every inmate of a reforma-
tory or industrial school is allowed free communication with his rela-
tives, and, if they are of tolerably good character, is allowed from time
to time to visit them. The cases in which this privilege has beea
abused and advantage taken of the leave to abscond from the school
have been and are very rare indeed.
3. It is an esseiiUal characferktic of the reformatory system that the
schools have a thoroughly religious character.
There are none of the class called secular. Religious teaching is an
essential feature of the instruction. The superintendents have hitherto
been generally jiersonally religious agents, capable of taking, and ac-
customed to take, an active i)art in the scriptural instruction and daily
worship. In the majority of the schools, the Bible is the recognized
source and chief instrument of the religious teaching, the catechism
not being required.
4. Great stress is laid on the industrial training.
In the reformatory schools more especially, regular daily labor in the
field or workshop, or for girls in the laundry, the house, or the needle-
room, is insisted on ; the working-time being generally from six to
eight hours per day. The employments of the inmates in industrial
schools are necessarily less laborious, the children being usually much
younger, but the same principle is kept in view, that, as the evil to be
cured has been always more or less the result of idleness and license,
the remedy must especially prescribe and provide for labor and exer-
tion, ajid the self-restraint which these require.
5. The importance of supervision and occasional assistance after the in-
mates have left the schools, and ichile they are making good their footing in
the tcorld^ is fully recognized.
They are, as a rule, carefully kept in view and reported on, and, where
necessary, aid afibrded them. The differences which the annual reports
and returns show in the success with which the operations of the schools
have been conducted may geiierally be traced, more or less, to the differ-
ent degree m which this after-supervision has been maintained.
6. It is a fundamental principle of the system that the responsihilify of
the child's parents to provide for its maintenance and training should be
enforced.
This is a feature peculiar to the system as carried out in Great Britain,
and has, undoubtedly, materially secured it from becoming a source of
injury to the community at large.
The parents of each child committed to a reformatory or industrial
school (if it has aiiy alive) are summoned before a magistrate, their
circumstances inquired into, and a payment toward the cliild's mainte-
nance enforced, proportioned to their means in every possible case.~ The
acts allow of this payment being assessed as high as five shillings per
week, but, as a rule, the contributions are rarely higher than from one
to three shillings. In a large number of cases, especially as regards the
122 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
cLiltlren in iiulustrial schools, tlie parents are too poor to pay; mauy are
widows, themselves almost wholly destitute, and such are, of course,
excused. Mauy of the children are also orphans. But a very consid-
erable proportion of i)arents are brouoht under contribution, and the
amounts thus obtained have steadily increased, and uow reach nearly
£10,000 a year. The enforcing of these contributions is a part of tlie
business of the inspector, who has a staff of assistants appointed for
tlie purpose. It is chiefly carrieil out through the police authorities of
the district in which the parents reside, by whom the j^ayuients are
received and transmitted to the inspector, to be paid over to tlie treasury.
The justice and necessity of this part of the system are evident. No
parent has a right to escape his share of the penalties of his child's
misconduct, too often the fruit of his own neglect or dissolute conduct;
and but for some such check, the temptation to the parent of shifting
the burden of his child's support and education on the public would
increase the number of candidates for reformatory training faster than
the means of providing it could be supplied. The disease would be
spread by the very means employed to remedy it, and the charge on the
treasury, that is, eventually on all classes of tax-payers, would become
insupportable. It is held in England that no system of reformatory
training can be adopted with justice or safety to the community at large
in which this element is omitted.
CHAPTEE XVI.
STATE OF PRISONS IN SUCH OF THE BRITISH POSSESSIONS AS WERE
REPRESENTED IN THE CONGRESS.
^ieports on prison discipline as it now exists in India, Ceylon, Vic-
toria, and Jamaica were submitted to the congress by delegates present
from those countries. They were, however, not framed on the same
plan as the reports whose substance has been given in the preceding
chai)ters, and the information contained in them could not, therefore, be
embodied with that furnished by said reports. A separate chapter is,
conse(]uently, devoted to a re.siimeoi their contents.
§ 1. India. — Little si)ecial legislation has been given in India to pris-
ons and i)ris()ii systems. J'rison regulations have been made, for the
most part, witiiout any direct sanction of law. Of tlie few prison acts
which have been ])assed, none lays down any broa<l i)rinciples of juison
disi'ipliiie. One of them, however, that of J.SIM, contains some import-
ant i>rovisions: it a!)olislies (jorjxn'al piinislnnent, substitutes lines in
certain cases foi- lalxn-, and eini»owers the, government to introduce by
degrees a reformatory ])rison discipline.
Nearly every i)residen(;y and province of India has its own special
jail code. That of JJengal provides for a system of rewards to be given
to w<'ll-(;on(hic,t('d jtrisoners. There Ims also been established, for all
India, a system of remission (►!' sentence in reward of good conduct.
Jn the whole of Indiii therci was, in round numbers, in 1S70, a daily
averagf'of <i 1,(100 prisoners, in(;lu(liiig the lile-(,H)Uvicts at I'ort Blair.
There were, in the s;ime yeiii', two hundred ;nid twenty eight Jiiils and
an indelinite numlier of lock ups. Of these prisons two are entirely
eelluhir ; t he i'emain<lei' ;ire built, on ex'ery <'onceivable phiii, a larg(! iiuiu-
ber of them being iniseiable mud-structures, which are constantly
STATE OF PRISONS INDIA. 123
washed away by heavy rains. In most of them male and female prison-
ers are separated at ni<;ht. All Avork is in association, ^yith the excep-
tion of cases of discipliiiiiry i)nnishment. There are sixteen central jails,
intended for prisoners sentenced to an imprisonment of more than a
year, but this intention is not rigidly observed. Tliere are no reforma-
tories, and bnt two si)ecial prisons for women. Until recently there
were no female warders, and even now they are not found in all the
jails. Prison officers, as a rule, are incompetent, corrupt, and under-
paid, and no systematic effort is made to remedy this state of things.
The annual cost of prisoners per capita is about $.!](). Economy is i)rac-
tised at the expense of efficiency. Greater attention is paid to the dim-
iiuition of expenditure than to the carrying out of any sound and sensi-
ble system of prison discipline.
There is little cell-accommodation — scarcely enough for the punish-
ment of breaches of prison regulations — nor is there any system of class-
ifying the prisoners of any practical value. No general measures of
reform are possible till tliis state of things is remedied.
Imprisonment for debt still exists in India, but separate accommoda-
tion is i)rovided for imprisoned debtors, and they are in all respects
treated with humanity and a due consideration of their rights and
necessities.
Much attention has recently been paid ii^i India to prison statistics
and the results obtained form the most reliable collection of facts in
existence relating to the civil state of the British Empire in the east.
The information gathered is divided into three categories — judicial,
financial, and vital — and under each head a few of the most salient i)oints
of interest are noted. The vital statistics of the prisons of Lower Ben-
gal since 1807 have been drawn up in the manner suggested by Dr.
Earr, the president of the Statistical Society of London, than whom no
higher authority exii-:ts. They show the average number of prisoners
in custody, the number and causes of deaths, sickness and death-
rates, average terms of sentence, duration of imprisonment, «&c., &p.
In addition, the Bengal returns contain facts connected with age,
sex, caste, religion, occupation ]>rior to and during im})risonment,
sentence, dietaries, state of health on admission and discharge, and
the locality of imprisonment in its intiuence on sickness and mortality.
Originally the chief occupation of prisoners in India was extramural,
either in making imperial roads or in station-improvements. Subse-
quently remunerative industrial labor was introduced, and each prisoner
had a task assigned him equal in amount to that performed by a fairly
skilled artisan of the same class. It is sought tomake it as much as possi-
ble an instrument of reformation, which is accomplished by teaching-
each convict some handicraft that will enable him to earn an honest liv-
ing on his release, and by inculcating habits of industry that will coun-
teract the idleness that is the proxiuuxte cause of much of the vice that
leads to crime.
Industrial labor is the basis of the Indian system, although Avithin
the last two years out-door work has been revived, and large gangs of
convicts are now employed on the canals; a system which, on moral
grounds, njust be considered a retrograde measure.
Prison dietaries in India have been arranged with a view to giving all
that is really re<piired tpr health and strength, and withholding every-
thing that would place the prisoner in a better condition than the ])oor
and honest in his own walk of life. The hospital dietary is unrestricted.
A penal dietary, for serious breaches of prison discipline and for short-
term prisoners, has also been introduced. The other xjuuishments em-
124 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
ployed for prison offenses are fetters, separate confinement, flo<^ging,
and penal labor. Separate confinement cannot always be resorted to,
on account of inadequate cell-accommodations, so that flogging is em-
ployed to an extent that is lamentable.
Edncation — i. e., instruction combined with moral and religious train-
ing— is unknown in Indian jails. Keligious acts and observances are prac-
tically forbidden to native prisoners, for whom no ministration is or can
be provided. Christian prisoners have the aid of i^astors, and other
prisoners may obtain similar aid on application. Proselytizing by
Christian missionaries is, however, peremptorily prohibited. For secu-
lar instruction no special provision is made, though much has been done
by zealous individual officers in the way of primary instruction.
One of the chief peculiarities of Indian prison management is the em-
ployment of convict agency. The small salaries allowed render it dif-
ficult to procure suitable persons as prison keepers. This led to the trial,
many years since, of well-behaved, long-term ].)risoner8 in this capacity.
So successful was the experiment that the practice has now been ex-
tended to the whole of India, special ijrovision for it having been intro-
duced in all the jail codes. As a reward for good conduct and strict
obedience to prison rules, all convicts whose" behavior has been exeni-
plary throughout, and who have completed the prescribed term of hard
labor, are eligible for the offices of convict-warder, guard, and work-
overseer, which offices can never exceed 10 per cent, of the criminals in
custody. The financial and reformatory results of this system have been
satisfactory. It teaches self-respect and self-control, and few prisoners
who have held such ofiices have relapsed into crime.
There are no prisoners' aid societies in India. In the large stations,
a few philanthropic individuals occasionally interest themselves in the
matter, but the constant changes in Indian society have rendered con-
tinual and combined action impossible. Convict artisans, trained in jail,
find no difficulty in obtaining em[)loymeut, and few who have attained
any degree of skill ever return to prison.
The governors of provinces and the viceroy of India possess absolute
power of pardon, but such powers are never exercised without careful
inquiry and grave deliberation.
To nearly every prison is attached a garden, wherein are raised the
vegetables and fruit required for prison consumption, any balance over
and above the prison wants being sold. Tiie chief object of the garden,
however, is to counteract the scorbutic tendency of sedentary employ-
ment in work-sheds, by affording a wholesome amount of out-door occu-
pation in useful directions.
§ 2. Ceylon. — The i)rincipal prison upon the island in Ceylon is that
at Wellikada, an ac(;ount of which was prepared for the congress by Mr.
II. .J. Duval, inspector-general. Ilerci separate confinement with rigor-
ously penal labor is enforced during the whole term of short sentences
and the fust six months of long sentences. Long terms of imprisonment
are divided into three stages, (jailed, respectively, the penal, secondary,
and upper stage.
On atlmission, every piisoner is placcnl in iho j)enal stage, tlier(^ to pass
the first six months, in the, ense of a long seuK'uce, or tlu^ whole term, in
that of a shoil one. No part of tliis stage, is remissible, but it may be
])r(>longed by miseonduet. This stage is found t^o exer(!is(3 a most bene-
ficial intbien(!e in subduing the ]»risoners, and pre|)aring them for the
next. In the case of short-term men, it is highly deterrent.
At the termination of tlu^ penal stage, prisoners are removed into the
fiecondary or industrial hard-labor stage. Here the mark system begins.
STATE OF PRISONS CEYLON JAMAICA. 125
Each convict is debited with a number of marks corresponding to the
number of days in his sentence, minus the first stage. By industry and
good conduct, he may earn nine marks per week, and this nuiximum
continued will close his mark account at seven-ninths of the period, the
remaining' two ninths being remitted. If he earn only eight marks weekly
the reduction of time is only one-ninth.
Breaches of discipline are rare. The punishments employed are for-
feiture of marks, a return to the penal stage, and flogging, which latter,
however, is never used except in cases of mutiny, and the number of
lashes never exceeds twelv^e. The wholesome dread of a return to the
penal stage is usually sufficient to stimulate the convicts to industry and
obedience. In this stage, they are employed at such hard labor as they
may be fitted for by their previous habits and occupation in life, the
object being to make their labor as productive as possible.
Eeligious instruction cannot possibly be general in a country settled
by many races, professing a multitude of religious or superstitious creeds.
At the large prisons, the ministers and native catechists of various mis-
sionary bodies hold service on Sunday", but attendance on these minis-
trations is optional with the prisoners. ]!S[ative school-masters also give
instruction in the vernacular languages on each Sunday afternoon ; but,
attendance at school being optional, few avail themselves of the offered
instruction, the great majority preferring to spend the day in idleness.
The third or upper stage is a privilege awarded only to the few.
Prisoners who have served at; least two-thirds of their sentence, and
who have, while in the industrial stage, distinguished themselves as
good prisoners and skillful w^orkmen, are promoted to be prison consta-
bles, their duties being to assist the subordinate officers in the mainte-
nance of order and discipline in the prison. When em[)loyed on public
works, they act in the capacity of foremen, being generally selected
with a view to their fitness for such work. While holding this appoint-
ment, they are credited with one rupee per month, which is paid to them
on discharge from prison.
§ 3. Jamaica. — On the island of Jamaica there are four classes of pris-
ons: 1st, the general penitentiary; IM, county jails; 3(1, district prisons;
4th, sliort-term prisons. To the first of these establishments are sent
all convicts whose term of sentence exceeds twelve months and all soldiers
and sailors condemned by court-martial. The labor is both penal and in-
dustrial. The tread-mill is made slightly remunerative by being attached
to a mill for grinding corn. Prisoners, when not at work on the tread-
mill, are emjiloyed in quarrying and cutting stone, and as brick-makers,
lime-burners, carpenters, coopers, masons, blacksmiths,, tinsmiths, tailors,
shoe-makers, &c., under the instruction of competent tradesmen employed
for that purpose, and supervised by an intelligent overseer of works from
England. The convicts work in association, but in silence. The women
are employed in the domestic work of the prison and in picking coir.
The diet is designed to keep the prisoners in good health, but without
pampering them. The cost per diem for each convict during the past
year was a little more than 3^d.
A clergyman of the church of England is employed as chaplain, but
all prisoners are allowed to see the clergy of the denomination to which
they may belong.
The reward for good conduct, awarded to all prisoners except recidi-
vists and those guilty o"f a peculiar class of crimes, is promotion to the
"license-class," a position much coveted, and to which a convict is eligi-
ble after having satisfactorily served half his time. This promotion
carries with it a remission of one-fourth of the original sentence.
126 INTEENATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
The puuisbments employed in the case of males consist of degradation
from the "license-class," solitary confinement on bread and water, and,
in exceptional cases, the cat, which, however, is never administered
except with the approbation of the governor of the island, to whom is
sent a full statement of the case. The only pnnishmeiits for women are
solitary confinement on bread and water and degradation from or de-
nial of admittance to tlie license-class. This degradation, whether in
the case of men or women, involves the loss of all the time earned by
the prisoner through good conduct. So wholesome a dread is felt by
the convicts of this penalty that it has not been found necessary to in-
flict it in a solitary instance during the last two years.
The county jails are used chieliy for the confinement of debtors and
persons awaiting trial. They are employed as places of punishment
only for misdemeanants. No labor is carried on.
In the district prisons (five in number) are confined prisoners whose
sentence does not exceed twelve months. The inmates are visited daily
by a government medical officer, and by the insi)ector of prisons not less
than once in three months. The magistrates of the parish also act as
oflicial visitors, and have power to infiict punishment — /. e., to sentence
to solitary confinement on bread and water. The nearest clergyman
acts as chaplain on Sundays. The prisoners are confined in association
wards, the only separation being that of the sexes.
The short-term prisons (of which there are also five) are designed to
supplement the district prisons, by obviating the necessity of sending
petty criminals twenty or tliirty miles to undergo a sentence of a few
days' duration, the whole of which was before their establishment some-
times occiri)ied in making the journey. Prisoners may be received into
these prisons for periods not exceeding sixty days. They are supervised
by a sergeant of constabulary, whose wife acts as matron, and by a task-
master. They are employed on the main roads breaking stones and
picking coir.
The inspector-general of prisons on the island, Mr. Shaw, in the paper
submitte(l by him to the congress, of which this section is ai! ei)itome,
calls attention to the very marked falling off in the number of crimes
committed by women, the d(M'rease since ISdl having been 70 per cent.
This reduction he attributes to the fact that, in 18()4, orders were given,
to have the hair of women sentenced to hard labor cut close; immediately
the decrease commenced. A negro woman i)ri/es nothing so highly as
her hair, and it is a common practice for many of them to have their
liair cut off before trial, ami kept for them until their release, when
they fasten it on again. Those who are less provident sedulously seclude
themselves until their hair has grown.
.Mr. Sliaw says that after considerable exi)erience with prisoners, and
having paid much attention to all that has been said and wiitten on the
l)ractical)ility of deterring ])eo])I(^ IVom (trime, he is compelled to conless
that he knows no i)reventi\'e measure so ellicacious as cutting olf the
liair f)f negro women.
§ 1. Vii'lofid. — Ther(^ is lint one eonvict-pi'ison in Victoria-, whicih "s
for mah's only. The oflicers ;ire iippointe<l by the governor in (;onn(nl,
to hold ollice <liiring good behavior, and after service they have retiring
giatnities and yearly pensions.
'J'he pi'isoners are, divided into six class(>s and may earn ;i remission
of a poition of their sentence by good (M)nduct. Those in the first class
are kei)t in stiict separate, confinement, eating, workitig, and sleeping in
their <;ellK; those in the second, third, and Ibnrth classes labor in asso-
ciation, but are sei)arated by night; in tin- fifth and sixth classes they
STATE OF PRISONS VICTORIA. 127
are employed on public works, recei\ in.^- rations of tea, sugar, and tobacco,
besides bein.i;- allowed a jj^ratuity ainoiiiitiii^ to 2(1. a day in the fifth and
(ul. ])er day in the sixth cUiss. The punishments emi)l()yed are solitary
confinement and extension of the term of imprisonment. Itesort is never
had to corporal punisliment. The prisoners do not wear the parti-colored
dress, the effect of wliicli is believed to be merely de;4radin<4-.
Tliere are four chaplains connected with the English, Koman Catho-
lic, Wesleyan, and Presbyterian churches, each of whom holds one
service every Sunday. A schoolmaster instructs all the prisoners in
reading, writing, and arithmetic for one hour every day, and facilities
are aftbrded for the study of grammar, geography, and the elementary
mathematics.
There is no strictly penal labor, nor is the prison labor let on contract.
The chief kinds of work are quarrying, building, shoe-making, taik)ring,
carpentering, weaving, and mat-making. The value of the labor per-
formed has averaged during the last five years about $S5 per head,
exclusive of work done for the prison itself The average annual cost
per capita in excess of this sum, including food, clothing, and a propor-
tionate share of the salaries, besides the estimated rent of the prison-
property, has been about $12.
Xo supervision is maintained over discharged prisoners, nor is any
interest taken in their subsequent career.
The county jails are divided into two classes, one class being under
the charge of the penal department of the government, the other under
the police; about six months in the former, in tlie latter a few days, is
the average sentence. In none of the jails is there penal labor, and in
the police jails there is no labor of any kind. The prisoners work in
association, and the average annual net enrniugs per capita, exclusive of
any portion allowed to the prisoner himself, have been during the lasc
five years about $18. The shortness of the sentences (nearly one-half
being for less than a month) prevents any permanently reformatory
results.
There are three reformatories in Victoria, two of which are wholly,
and one partially, supported by the state. As far as practicable the
children's parents are required to contribute to their support; but the
amount received from this source is insignificant. The limits of age
within which children are received are eight and fifteen.
The boys are employed in tailoring, shoe-making, carpentery, sail-
making, and seamanship. The girls perform the domestic work and
are instructed in needle-work. The products of the inmates' labor are
not sold, the work done being entirely for the use of the institution.
In nearly every case the children obtain a situation or are sent to
their parents. In the latter case they are no longer under the care of
the institution. Wlien licensed to emi)loyers they are considered still
under its control, and may be returned to it if not doing well.
Prizes are given for proliciency in school and in labor, and early dis-
charge to service for good conduct. Those who distinguish themselves
in this i)articular are appointed monitors, captains of messes, &c. The
punishments are extra drill, privation of food for short periods, and cor-
poral punishment, not exceeding twelve stripes, on hand or breech.
Eecord is made of the children's conduct while in the institution, and
also after their discharge, as far as it can be ascertained.
PART SECOND.
WORK OF TEE CONGRESS.
INTRODUCTORY.
It is Cfbvious, on tue slightest reflection, tliat a body like the Congress
of London, coming together from so many different countries and com-
posed of members having little i^revious knowledge of one another,
and ignorant especially of each other's o})inions on the questions which
they had met to consider, would be ill-suited to intelligent, harmonious,
and, above all, effective work, without some carefully prepared chart to
guide them in their labors. Impressed with this idea, the national
committee of the United States had embodied in its final circular letter,
addressed to the national committees of other countries, a recouimen-
dation that an international committee, to be composed of one or several
members from each country which proposed to take part in the con-
gress, should meet in London on the 24th of June, ten days in advance
of the congress itself. Conformably to this recommendation, the pro-
posed committee convened at the time and place named, and organized
by choosing the undersigned as chairman and Edwin Pears, esq., as
secretary, the latter gentleman to act as such throughout the sessions
of the congress. Even the international committee found itself too
unwieldy a body to do the work assigned it in a satisfactory manner,
and designated a sub-committee, which it named an international ex-
ecutive committee, consisting of one member from each country repre-
sented in the general committee. Of this smaller body, G. W. Hast-
ings, esq., of England, was made chairman. These bodies met usually
on alternate days, though sometimes on the same day at different hours,
the smaller piei)aring the business aiul reporting it to the larger for a
broader ctMisideraticni and a final determination. The two committees
thus labored assiduously at the work of arranging the programme of
I)r<)ceedings, and all other matters of a preparatory kind, down to the
very eve of the opening of the congress. IJefore dissolving itself, the
larger comuiittee constituted the smaller a periuanent committee, to sit
every morning for .the i)urpose of consid(unng any questions that miglit
arise in the progress of the labors of the congress, and especiall}' to
prei)are business for it from day to day. It also named the Kight Honor-
able tlie ICarl of Carnarvon i)ermanent ])resident of the body, although,
owing to the state of his lordsiiip's health, it was understood that he
wouhl l)e al)l(; to preside; only at the first session, when he would deliver
the opening a(hlress. Tlie arrangement resolved upon for securing a
l)ie,si(bng officer throughout the continuance of the cougress was to
s('le(;f a meinlK'r as viceprcsldcMt each <lay. The giMieral committee,
bef'ori! its dissolution, did the undersigned the honor to name him for
the first day, and left the <bity to the executive committee of designat-
ing the gentlcMnan to act as eliairman for (;a<;h of tlie succeeding days.
The i)i-ogramme of qiieslions to be sul)mitted to the (;ongress was
arr.uigeil upon the principle of considei'ing, fh'st, the treatment o!" the
piisoner b(!fbre conviction ; secondly, his treatment- during the time of
PAET SECOND INTRODUCTORY DR. WINES' ADDRESS. 1-29
])nnisliiiient; and, thirdly, bis treatment after discbarge. But a con-
siderable number of questions, deemed important to be discussed at this
meetiufi-, do not properly fall within eitlier of the above categories ;
besides which, the whole subject of juvenile delinquency and its treat-
ment, and that of penitentiary systens, refuse ecpially the strictly logi-
cal classification indi(;ated above. These matters are accordingly treated
in three distinct chapters of the present report.
The English government had not originally given that cordial hospi-
tality to the idea of the congress which had been extended to it by
other governments, both European and American. Jiut whatever cool-
ness it may have shown at first was amply atoned for by the fullness
and warmth of its sympathy after the congress had been organized and.
had gotten fairly at work. It deputed Major Du Cane, chairman of the
directors of convict-prisons, to attend the sessions of the congress, and
instructed him to give all possible information concerning the Eng-
lish convict-system and its workings. It threw open to the members
every prison and reformatory in the United Kingdom, and gave instruc-
tions to their governors to afford sj^ecial facilities for observing and un-
derstanding everything connected with their organization and manage-
ment, even to the minutest details. His Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales attended a soiree given to the congress by the people of London,
at which members wei'e individually presented to hiui, with many of
M'hom he conversed freely, expressing a warm interest in the meeting,
and in its objects and work. The lord chancellor gave a state dinner
to the American judges and some other leading American delegates;
ami the Earl of Granville, secretary for foreign affairs, invited the en-
tire congress to a magnihcent soiree at his rooms in the foreign office.
Several n^embers of Parliament also, besides attending- and partici-
pating in the proceedings of the congress, gave dinners or soirees to its
members at their residences in town or invited them to their country
seats in the neighborhood. The home secretary, the Ivight Honorable H.
A. Bruce, to whose department the care of prisons belongs, attended in
person one of the sittings of the congress; and, in an ekxjuent address
to the body, he expressed the gratification he experienced in a[)pearing-
before it and in conveying to it his own and the chanks of tlie govern-
ment for having chosen England as the place of meeting, and their high
appreciation of the spirit in which the members had undertaken their
task ; adding highly interesting statements in regard to prison work
and prison reform in England, and particularly iu reference to the dim-
inution of crime iu that country, as shown by the penitentiary returns
received at his office during the last ten years.
As has been already stated iu the general introduction to this report,
the congress was opened on the evening of the 3d of July by an address
from Lord Carnarvon ; and on the morning of the 4th its real work
began. The undersigned, appointed president for the day, opened the
work of the congress with tlie short address which follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen: Called by the kindness of the interna-
tional committee to preside over this dignified assemblage, on this its
first working'-day, while expressing my gratitude for so distiuguished
an honor, I beg to offer a remark or two touching the occasion which
has brought us together from so many different countries. This con-
gress is convoked in the interest of humanity, of civilization. It is
composed of thinkers and workers in one of the great departments of
social science and social reform, representative men and women gath-
ered literally from the ends of the earth. We have here representa-
tives of government-s, of prison societies, of penal and reformatory ia-
H. Ex. 185 9
130 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
stitntioDs, of governing: boards of penitentiary establishments, of high
courts of criminal jurisdiction, of police boards, of associations of
jurists, of the penal law departments of universities, and of the acad-
emy of moral and political sciences of the Institute of France. There
are present also many other persons who, though not belonging to
either of the categories named, have long been devoted to i)eiiitentiary
and humanitarian studies, and who have brought their great knowledge
and their great hearts to help us in our labors. The special work of
this congress is to study, and, if possible, to solve, the problems, as
grave as they are difficult, involved in the treatment ot crime and
criminals. The congress, composed as has been ex[)laiued, and em-
bodying, therefore, representatively, the knowledge, experience, and
"wisdom of the world on this subject, has a great o])portunity before it,
great and full of promise. It is as great an opportunity as the noblest
ambition could dl^sire, but equally great is the responsibility which it
brings with it; for let it be remembered that opportunity and duty are
evermore correlative. God has joined them together, and man cannot
put them asunder. The business of this congress, if I conceive it
aright, is not to fritter away its time, strength, and zeal in minute de-
tails, and especially not to give expression to a preference for one peni-
tentiary system over others, but to agree upon certain broad principles
ajid propositions ^Yhich may be made to underlie, pernzeate, vivity, and,
above all, to render fruitful any and all systems of criminal treatment.
We have come together to give shape, point, and practical force to a
great movement in favor of penitentiary reform, may I not almost say
a great upheaval of the public conscience througliout the civilized
world on this subject ? Let us see to it that we rise to the full height of
our duty. Let us see to it that we give a wise direction, as we can
hardly fail to impart a strong impulse, to the movement which I have indi-
cated. If we do not fail in this, as I feel sure we shall not, and if we
follow up our pn^sent work w ith some permanent organization that shall
perpetuate, enlarge, and intensify its results, it seems to me not an un-
reasonable hope that the next lifty years will see a progress in the
methods and processes of ciiminal treatment, and especially in the
])rincii)les and a])plication of a reformatory prison discipline, which all
the ages hitherto have scarcely witnessed.
Ladies and gentlemen of the congress, let us addi'css ourselves to our
work with courage, resolution, intelligence, and, above all, with a
liearty love of trutli and a genuine brotherly accord, and we cannot
doubt that the guidance and blessing- of Ueaven will attend our labors.
CIIArTER XVII.
THE rilLSONER AFTER ARREST AND BEFORE CONVICTION.
This (piesfion was stated in the following terms : "What should be
the treatment of prisoui'is befoi'e conviction ?" The discussion Avas
opened by Oount de l-'oicsta, i»r<>eni<'ur-g(''n<''ral of Aneoiia, Italy. lie
expressed himself as oi>posed to associaletl imi)risonment piior to con-
vi»;tion, more especially in cases where there was reason to fear that a
inisoner by sueli association might defeat < he ends of justice. J le thought
if an alisc.bite «bity of the authorities to j)rovide isolation for such pris-
oners under arrest as might desirt,' it ; and in no case should a man who
TREATMENT OF TRISONERS BEFORE COKVICTIOX. 131
was still (leemed innocent be compelled to associate with others in a
prison a,ti,'ainst liis will. It was, at best, a hard necessity that a man
should be locked up in a jail l)efore he was convicted of any crime.
The IJev. Mr. Collins, of Tremardale, Bodmin, tliought that the fre-
quency of imprisonments before conviction niijiht be, and oiir>ht to be,
largely reduced. The plan he suggested to effect tliis was that, in all
cases at ])resent bailable, a system of personal bail should be substituted
for a money bail. Instead of the existing arrangement, Ijy which a sum
of money is forfeited on the prisoner's failure to answer his recognizance,
he would make the forfeit, in case of his non-appearance a full day
before that appointed for his trial, liability to the full penalty of the
crime with which he stands charged. He thought that this would secure
his attendance much more effectively than the present system of bail,
since no sane man would expose himself to a certain and extreme pen-
alty, when, by surrendering himself, he would have all the chances of
escape which a trial olfers. Such a plan would have the advantage of
placing the poor man, now often unable to obtain sureties, on a level
with his richer neighbor. It would also tend to imbue the. public mind
with the idea that imprisonment is in itself a punishment and a dis-
grace; it would save nuiny an innocent man from an imprisonment not
deserved; it was in strict accord with the maxim that every man was
to be deemed innocent until proved guilty; it was an economical arrange-
ment, as it vfould save the cost of the prisoner's sujiport, and humane,
since it prevented the sundering of wives and families from their bread-
winners.
Mr. Stevens, of Belgium, said that in his country safe custody was
regarded as the only object of ])reiimiuary detention, and hence all who
were able were allowed to purchase small luxuries. Before trial, all pris-
oners were well accommodated.
Mr. Pownell, of England, said that the bench, with which he was con-
nected, had anticii)ated this question. Every man being considered, iu
law, to be innocent until jiroved guilty, it seemed that an undeserved
stigma was inliicted upon a man by sending him to jail before convic-
.tion. Hence a house of detention had been built for tlie reception of
jtersons awaiting trial. The inmates were isolated, thus saving them
from contamination and also from taunts flung' at them, after liberation
or acquittal, of having been incarcerated in a felon's cell. Various priv-
ileges were allowed them, such iis the purchasing of their own food, if
their means were sufficient, daily visits from friends, unrestricted con-
sultation with their legal adviser, &g. This plan, he believed, was more
just than to brand with the prison mark an untried man.
CHAPTER XYIII.
THE PRISONER DURING HIS INCARCERATION'.
§ 1. Proper maximum of prisoners for any single prison. — The question
"What ought to be the maximum number of prisoners or convicts de-
tained in any prison?" was introduced before the congress by Mr.
Ekert, of Germanj^ who said that during the many years through
which he had been head of the prison at Bruchsal, this question had
received much of his attention. He believed that live hundred should
be made the maximum, and that the number should rather fall below
132 IXTERXATIONAL PEXITENTIARY COXGEESS.
tliau exceed that figure. This proposition he urged ou the triple ground
of security, justice to the prisouer, and liope of reformation. A larger
number would, in his opinion, render individualization extremely diffi-
cult, without which there can be no effective reformatory treatment of
prisoners. Xor does an increased number of subordinates obviate the
difficulty. The above view is in accordance with one of the fundamental
principles of the Crofton prison system. The question of cost should
not be made paramount, since where money considerations prevail, all
reform too frequently comes to an end. He had arrived at his opinion
after consultation with many competent authorities, whose belief coin-
cided with that which had sprung up in his own mind after many years'
experience as a prison officer and as president of the German Prison
Society, in which latter capacity he had had an opportunity of obtaining
information from all parts of the world on the operation of different
prison systems.
Sir John Bowring, of England, was of opinion that large prisons
were preferable to small ones, not only on the ground of economy, but
also as atibrding a wider scope for emulation and moral improvement.
The larger the scale ou which labor is coiulucted, the more profitable
are its returns, and he believed the same principle to hold true in the
case of the operation of moral influences. Instrnction is most easily
imparted in universities, and a clergyman is more likely to make an im-
pression on a large congregation than on a small one. The elements of
improvement and the tendencies to deterioration should be considered
in the treatment of each prisouer, and the larger the scale on which
such observations are made, the more valuable would be the results.
31. Vaucher-Cremieux, of Switzerland, agreed with Herr Ekert, while
admitting that, for financial reasons, a large number might be desirable.
The difficulties of supervision, however, particularly in cellular prisons,
were greatly increased. He quoted M. Deinetz, director of the reforma-
tory at 3Iettray, France, as holding that three or four hundred
was a sufficient number for prisons of this class, and expressed his be-
lief that in prisons conducted ou the congregate system one thousand
should be the maximum.
31. Stevens, of Belgium, thought that the question of expense should
be subordinated to that of reformation. Looking at the (juestion from
that stand-point, he tiiought that in no prison should the number of
convicts exceed five hundred, and in cellular prisons it should be even
less.
JJr. 3Iouat,late inspector-general of prisons in the province of Bengal,
India, while agreeing with M. Stevens as to the superior importance of
n-formation over economy, believed that excessive subdivision of jirisons
might be jnstly opposed as too costly. He believed that individual
treatment was entirely practicable in a prison containing one thousand
inmates, if the staff of subordinates were large enough to attend to the
details and to the treatment of each juisoner. This number had been
miule the ]iia\iinum by law in India, in lS(»t, ])artly on financial grounds,
and i)artly with a view to moral and dis('ii)liiiary treatment.
31. I'eteiseii, of Norway, iiad, in the i)rison of which he was the head,
an average ol two hundred and t wenty-four convicts. He considered this
number too snuill, l)elieving that huge i)risons could be more easily
managed than small ones. With a small number of prisoners there
waH a ten<lency to go too much into detail and s])eak too much with
tliem. Prisons conducted ou the se)>aiate system should, he thought,
have between three hundn-d an<l four hnndied inmates.
Hon. II. II. Leavitt. of Ohio, said that the stale-prison of that State
MAXIMUM AND CLASSIFICATION OF PRISONERS. 133
contained one thonsand prisoners, which number had not been found
so large as to prevent reformation.
Mrs. Janney, of Ohio, remarked that the authorities of the Oliio state-
prison were of the opinion that six hundred was a sunicient number,
and that it woukl be impossible for a warden to become individually
acquainted with ojie thousand.
Colonel Colville, for eighteen years governor of Coldbath Fields Prison,
London, stated that the number of prisoners under his care at any one
time had varied from one thousand live hundred to two thousand two
hundred. He favored large prisons on financial grounds, ami believed
that, by the employment of a proper number of otticials, all the advan-
tages of smaller prisons might be secured, though he admitted that there
was a tendency to limit the number of ofticials. Thus, while ten small
prisons would have had ten schoolmasters, Coldbath Fields had but one.
He had never, however, met with any difficulty in maintaining disci-
pline, and a cheerfulness had prevailed which had often surprised him.
Dr. Frey, of Austria, thought it impossible to fix a precise number.
The great question was how far tlie head of the prison would be able to
come into personal contact with each prisoner. If, as in Austria, he
was free from all economical matters, and had nothing to do but manage
the prisoners and see that they were well treated, he could attend to a
large number ; but if he had other duties, the number must be smaller.
General Pilsbury, of New York, thought that five hundred or six hun-
dred should be the maximum. He felt sure that he himself would not
be able to give personal attention to one thousand prisoners.
Professor Foynitsky, of Russia, thought that individual treatment
should not be sacrificed to financial considerations.
Mr. Frederic Hill, of England, contended that there might be indi-
vidual treatment in large prisons. The Glasgow prison, when he was
acquainted with it, had many hundreds, but there was individual treat-
ment nevertheless.
Baron von Holtzendorf, of Prussia, considered number dependent on
the system of management. In a cellular prison, five hundred should
be the maximum, and perhaps three hundred would be better, but in
public-works prisons there might be six hvindred or one thousand.
§ 2. Chifisijication of prisoners. — The question whether the classifica-
tion of iirisoners ought to be considered the basis of all penitentiary
systems, associate or separate, was introduced by privy councilor
d'Alinge, of Saxon3', who prefaced his remarks by saying that the crim-
inal is a moral iuvalid, whom we desire to help. Tliis help can be ren-
dered only by interrupting his criminal course, and by saving him from •
a relapse. In order to eftect this end, three things are necessary : 1,
care must be taken to ascertain the moral failing which prompted him
to crime; 2, means must be employed adequate to the removal of this
failing; 3, the convalescent must be provided with the full power of
resisting, by dint of his own efforts, a relapse. The only means for the
achievement of this triple end are education and classification. The
first problem of the penitentiary authorities, then, is to obtain as clear
an image as possible of the mental and moral condition of the prisoner.
To the practised eye of the oflQcial, such an image is, in many cases,
I)atent. In others, it will be necessary to isolate and watch the prisoner.
Having made a moral diagnosis of the state of each prisoner, we shall
find that he belongs to one of two classes : Either he is so depraved as
to have no power of will to do good remaining, (in which case another
will must be substituted for his own,) or he has sufficient power Uft to
134 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
rouse himself aiul strike ont a better path on the strength of his spon-
taneous resolve. To one of the former class we say, " You shall become
a better man ; " those in the latter say, " I will become a better man.''
Thus the inmates of a penitentiary naturally divide themselves into
three sections, which are best designated as disciplinary classes. Those
who show little or no inclination to meet the educational endeavors of
the authorities, only bending at the words "you s/irti/," form the third
disciplinary class, or lowest grade. Those who, with the thought " I
will be better" in their minds, co-operate readily with the exertions of
the authorities in raising their moral culture, and who, with a deter-
mined will and all their strength, profit by the means placed at their
disposal, form the second disciplinary class. Those, lastly, who for some
time have endeavored to improve, and justify a hope of steady progress
on their return into society, form the Jirst discii)linary class. Such a
classification demands of the managers a course of action similar to that
of the physician. They must, by employing adequate modifications of
prison discipline and educational agencies at their command, treat the
l)ri.soner operatively, curatively, and dietetically. Such a classification,
based on true psychological individualization, will and must, in every
j)rison system, work to the highest benefit of the prisoner, and, in con-
sequence, improve the political condition of the country adopting it.
In Saxony, this systeiu has been applied to 50,000 prisoners with the
greatest success.
M. Stevens, of Belgium, said that in that country there are two sys-
tems of classification. One is based on external conduct: obedience,
submission, and industry. Under this system there are three classes :
the good, the passable, and the bad. The other rests ui)on moral char-
acter, a much more diljlicult matter to ascertain, since God alone can judge
the heart.
Dr. Mouat, of England, had formerly had sixty prison officers under
his control in India. It was their unanimous opinion that moral classi-
fication was impossible, and that a moral barometer was a chimera,
since i)risoners did their best to conceal their real character, lest they
should suffer harsher treatment.
^Ir. Tallack, of I^^ngiand, agreed with Dr. IMouat, and thought that
the im])ossil>ility of moral classilication was one of the strongest argu-
it)ents for the cellular system, under which ever}' i^risoner was a class
by himself.
Dr. 3Iar(juardsen, of Gernmny, member of the Reichstag, believed
moial (;]assifi<'ati<)n to be im]»ossihh'. No doubt any system of classifi-
cation was better than none at al!, but he believed the cellular system
to be tlui true basis.
.Air. Scijeant Gox, of iMigJaiid, was of opinion that there was a wide
diffciciice, morally speaking, between the man who committed a crime
ol' viohMice under sudden )»assi()n aiul the habitual thief. The former
was IVcfjuently far nu)rc severely i)unished than the latter, although his
otfense did not, of itself, indieat<^ great moral depravity. lie thought
it monstious tliat the two should be treated i)recisely alike in jjiison. A
classifiealioii which only recognized these two categories, wouhl be bet-
tei' than none.
Dr. JJiltinger, of Pennsylvania, ])()inted out that tlu^ necessity for
classification of some sorij had always been re(;ognized — (hst, in the
Hi'j)aralion of dilferent sex<'s and different ages, and afterward in the
construction of jirisons for offenses of vaiious grades. He thought,
with Mr. (Jox, that the man who had committed a. crinui in hot blood",
or while into.\i<'ale(l, and the habitual criminal ought not to be treated
PRISON MANAGEMENT AND LEGISLATION. lo5
alike in prison. The latter was liopcloss, crime being his profession ;
while the former might be the victim of misfortnne. A sense of justice
was essential to reform ; and if they were put on the same footing, the
pick-i)ocket would despise justice, while the other would resent being
made a felon. An employer knew the character of his men, and he be-
lieved that a prison officer might judge of the moral character of his
prisoners by the same standard, i. e., their actions.
Colonel Katclilfe, of England, while admitting that classification was
im])Ossible in prisons where the sentences were for a few weeks or
months, thought it practicable in convict-prisons where the sentences
were of long duration.
Baron von Holtzendorff, of Prussia, said that M. d'Alinge's practical
experience had refuted the allegation of impossibility. Isolation and
the cellular system had arisen from the alleged impossibility of classifi-
cation, but the progressive system involved classification, and the prob-
lem had been solved by Germany and, to a certain extent, by Sir W.
Oroftou's system. The mark system was a self acting method of classi-
fication according to behavior. God alone could gauge the inner man,
but the outer man could be tested by behavior and industry. If he
played the hypocrite, he must be left to God.
§ 3. Prison management — how far to he regulated hy legislation. — The
discussion on this question was opened by Mr. Stevens, of Belgium.
He thought that prisons should be ])laced under the direction of a Cen-
tral aut'jority. The regulations of the public administration should
determine the prison administration, the mode of surveillance, and the
moral and material treatment to be adopted in conformity with the law 5
but a certain latitude should be left to the {^xecutive authority, making
obligatory, however, a due regard for the principles fixed l)y the law.
When prison treatment is not regidated by law, this latitude is too
large and extremely liable to abuse.
Baron Mackay, of Holland, agreed with Mr. Stevens that the general
principles of prison discipline should be laid down by legislation, but
thought that, in view of the rapid advances made in this science, it would
be unwise to attempt to prescribe details, which, when fixed by statute,
could not be easily altered.
Mr. Frederic Hill, of England, said that the plan suggested by Mr.
Stevens had been adopted in Scotland. Under the Scotch system all
details were left to the authorities in charge of the prison, who were
thus enabled to make such changes, from time to time, as experience
might suggest. He thought that tlie English system fettered the prison
officials too much. There should, however, always be some one directly
responsible to government for the working of the regulations adopted
in each prison.
Dr. JMouat said that the Indian system approximated to the Scotch.
Minute rules should not be embodied in acts of Parliament, but left to
experienced authorities, to be altered whenever it might become neces-
sary.
Baron von Holtzendorff said that the criminal code of Germany had
formerly given oilly the names of different kinds of punishment, but the
Eeichstag had asked the government to frame a rule defining each kind
of imprisonment. In Germany, and especially in Prussia, all regula-
tions for local prisons enumated from the government. There was, con-
sequently, great uniformity, and no such diiference could exist as pre-
vailed in England between jails and convict-prisons. Some prison
governors had no confidence in any system but their own, and it was
necessary to put some restraint on them. The question whether or not
136 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
corporal punisliment onglit to be inflicted slioiikl be determined by the
lejiislatnre, and not left, as in Germany, to the discretion of tlie governor.
The maximum and minimum of severity should also be laid down by
law, but the application — the determining what degree of severity to
inflict — should be left to the authorities.
Mr. Beltrani-Scalin, of Italy, said that in that country, for a long
time past, the law had laid down principles and left the mode of exe-
cuting them to the authorities.
Mr. Hastings, of England, objected to any attempt to obtain the
benefit of a uniform system by sacrificing local action. He considered
diversity of exj^eriment the only way of arriving at the best treatment.
It was impossible to say what was the best system of prison admin-
istration under all circumstances, in all countries, or even in all parts
of the same country. The legislature should lay down certain broad
principles, but within those limits entire liberty should be left to local
administration. Under a stereotyped system, which fettered the ad-
ministrators, its faults — and there would certainly be some — would be
without hope of remedy ; whereas, by leaving room for experiment and
diversity of action, a much better S3'stem would ultimately be reached.
Mr. Berden, of B,elgium, said that in that country a special law, a
modification of the Code Na])oleon, laid down the principles of prison
administration, but left sufficient discretion to i)rison authorities to
deal witli individuals as circumstances might dictate. Thus, although
most of the prisons were being adapted to the cellular system, which
system was favored by the legislature, prisoners who from ill-health or
other causes were unfit for the cellular system were not subjected to it.
§ 4. Whether whipping should be employed as a discipAinary punishment.
— ^Ir. Stevens was of oj)inion that it should not. Its tendency was to bru-
talize the prisoner, and thus neutralize the reformatory intiuences that
should be brought to bear upon him. He deprecated the use of physical
y)unishnient of all kinds, believing that moral means were all-sufficient,
if proi)er]y applied. The bastinado can never open the way to the heart.
Such ]>nnisliinents, in the words of a French workman, afl'ect only the
])risoner's liide^ wliile degrading him to the level of the brute. In
iJclginm, any prison olficial w ho liad resort to the lash would be promptly
dismissed from his ])(>st. It should never be forgotten that imprisonment
is but a severe, thongh benevolent, means to the accomplishment
of the prisoner's rcfoiniation. Ivx'ixnienee has i)roved that good dis-
cipline can be niaintaiiicd without frecjuent re(;ourse to i)unishments,
and that many ])risoncrs arc led to obedience by the moderation
and Justice disi)layed toward them by the administration. The idea
that ])risoners can be governed only by severity ])roceeds upon the
mistaUen belief that they are forever lost as regards an honest life.
Su(!h a Ix'lief overlooks the relation subsisting between crime on the
one sid(^ and ignorance and i)arental neglect on the other, and those
whf) emph>y sm-h chastisement as leaves in the heart only sentiments
of hatred and veng(Mi(;e may justly b(^ held responsible for the neglect
of tliose moral and religious influences, which alone are able to lead
men to obedience and dnty.
Major l)n ( "ane, director of l-^nglish convict prisoners, beliexcd that
prisoners were peisons whom disci|»line must rednce to a i)roper frame
of mind. He believed it would l)e impossible, to i)r(^serv(^ disci|)line and
jirotect the ol'ticeis — a lew men amid large bodies of ))risoners, many of
tMibiilenI dispositions — without the fear of corporal punisliment. He
li;i(l liiniself known prisoners to aeknoaledge, that, but for flogging they
would not have become tractable and reformed characters.
WHIPPING AS A DISCIPLINARY PUNISHMENT. 137
Dr. Mount said that in Indian prisons, owing: to their imperfect cou-
strnction, the cane had been much more larjifely employed than the
sugar extracted from it. Its inliictiou shoukl, in hisopinion, be restricted
to cases where convicts were so degraded and brutalized that the lash
alone would compel them to good behavior; but, wliile agreeing that
moral means should be pushed to the utmost, he would still, in Jealouslj-
guarded cases, retain the power, in the hope that this would render its
exercise unnecessary.
Mr. Shei)herd, for thirty years governor of the Watefield prison, Eng-
land, with an averageof one thousand inmates, stated that during all that
time no corporal punishment was inflicted there for prison oiienses.
He doubted whether in cases where it was inflicted every other means
had first been tried. He favored its entire abolition. Up to his resig-
nation (six years ago) he had remarked that nearly every prisoner sub-
jected to corporal punishment returned to the prison again.
Dr. Marquardsen, of Bavaria, said that in his country corporal i>un-
ishment had been abandoned several years ago, both as a means of pub-
lic punishment and as an agency of prison discipline. The respect and
obedience shown by prisoners had since greatly increased, breaches of
discipline had diminished, and no prison authority desired a revival of
the practice. The committee of the Keichstag, of which he had been a
member, charged with the framing of a military code for Germany, had
also set aside corporal punishment, so that not a blow could be struck
in the whole empire.
Dr. Frey, as the governor of a prison with many hundred inmates, said
that in Austria the use of the lash was abolished in 18GG, ex))erience
having shown that it was demoralizing. It deprived the prisoner of
that self-esteem which formed the basis of his moral i?nprovement, and
the strictest discipline might be maintained by other means.
Dr. Guillaume, of Switzerland, said it was also being abolished in
his country.
Major Fnlford, governor of the jail in Staffordshire, England, said
that he was required to be present at every infliction of corjjoral pun-
ishment in his prison, and that he was invariably ill in consequence.
Still, he believed it impossible to dispense with it in a prison where, as
was the case with his, the prisoners were thoroughly degraded and
vicious. There was a class of men who thought nothing of disgrace,
but cared only for the stripes that they received.
Mr, Wills, governor of Nottingham prison, England, agreed with Major
Fnlford that flogging, though it should rarely be administered, was a
useful power in reserve.
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, of Massachusetts, thought the only thing to
be said for flogging was that it was a time-saving process. Reason would
gain as much in time. She was sure that no brutally ill-treated woman
would thank the prison ofiticials for sending her husband home more
brutalized than before. She would never say to any prisoner, "You
area brute?" Rather would she say, "You are God's ciiild ; do not
dishonor His image, as I cannot, no matter what have been your faults,
dishonor it in yon."
Mr. Frederic Hill said that for seven years, while he was inspector of
prisons in Scotland, no corporal inflictions were allowed, nor did he hear
au}^ prison governor express a wish for the power to inflict such chas-
tisement.
Mr. Hastings, of England, was glad to say that it had not been found
necessary to use the lash in the county i^risou of which he was a visit-
lug justice.
138 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
Sir Walter Cioftoii said that EnjjHshuien ji^eiierally favored the reten-
tion of the power of corporal pnnisliinent, in order that the necessity
miglit never arise for its exercise. Prison ^^overnors had not tlie power
of enforcing- discipline by this means, which could be eiujtloyed only on
magisterial sanction. Its nse was very exceptional, and resort was
never had to it, until every other resource had been exhausted. In
conntries which had abolished Hogging in prison, other punishments
"were emi)loyed, and if an nnobjectionable substitute could be found for
England, he would be rejoiced to hear of it. Every magistrate and
prison governor had a horror of it, but all clung to the necessity of re-
taining the power to inflict it.
General Pilsbury, of New York, said he was no advocate of corporal
punishment. He knew from experience, how^ever, that all i)risoners
could not be governed by moral suasion; a few require sevei'er disci-
pline. He was convinced that no prison could be well and safely gov-
erned, nnless ample power were vested in the chief officer to inflict
special punishment, when called for, promptly, summarily, and, if need
be, severely. He was of opinion, however, that this power should be
given to the chief officer alone, and that not through the intervention
of an advisory board. If prisoners knew that he i^ossessed sucli a pow-
er, occasion for punishment would seldom arise j the knowledge would
prove sufticieut of itself to enforce discipline.
Br. Marquardsen, of Bavaria, thought that the actual experience of
what had been accomj)lished without the power to inflict cori)oral pun-
ishment furnished a stronger argument than the alleged maintenance
of disci])line l^y the existence of ])ower which was seldom exercised.
Such a method of reasoning he could not accept.
§ ~). Kinds and limits of instrvction suited, to tlte rcform(dorii treatment
of prisoners. — Mr. Stevens, of Belgium, opened the discussion by saying
that the means of moral influence should consist chiefly in education,
wliich should be of a quadruple character: industrial, scholastic, moral,
and religious.
1. Industrial education. — The object of this part of his education is to
]»rovide the prisoner with the mea;is of earning a livelihood on his dis-
charge. Consequently, in the work-sh()])s, more care should be taken to
teach him his trade thoroughly than to make his labor i>r()ductive. The
]»rimary object of labor, as an element of ])rison discipline, is to reform
Die piisoner and aid him to lead a reformed life on his (lis(;harge ; hence it
should be organized and conducted with a view rather to the future of
flie pi isoiier tiian to its effect u])()n tlu^ tieasury.
2. tSeliolaslir instrvetion. — This shouhl comiuise reading, writing, arith-
nu'tic, the elements of graniniar, history, geograi)]iy, geometry, and
linear diawing, the latter esjx'cially in refeieiu-e to trades and useful
arts. 'I'hc (act that i)ublic instiuction has received so great an exten-
sion within the last few years renders it all the. more imi)ortant that a
\ igoroiis impuls*^ he given to i)rimary instruction in prisons. Illiterate
jtcrsons should be, the object of special care.
.'{. Moral etliicaliou. — 'i'he teaclicr sliould, by special iiistruction in the
school, incidcatc the perCormance of social duties. This instru(ttion
should review I lie )irincii»al existing vices oi' society and den)onstrate
their sad an<l shaniclul conseiiuences. Alternately the teaching should
be based on the \ ill uc oj)pose(l to the ]>arti('ular vice discussed at the
preceding lesson, and should set forth as well its inherent/ beauty as the
moral and mateiial ad\antages associated with its exercise. Other les-
sons should be given on the most IVefiuent \iolalioiis of the ]»eiial code,
t'S))ccially noting su(;h crimes as robbery, swindling, rape, assault, mur-
PENITENTIARY EDUCATION ITS KINDS AND LIMITS. 139
der, &c. lu all moral instruction, an effort should be nja<le to develop
the sentiments of justice, family affection, and })atriotism.
4. ReUijioas education. — By tliis is understood the Hpfctal religious
instruction giveu by the ministers of each laith to the [)risoners attached
to it who are ignorant of the essential truths of religion. The use of
the word special in describing this jtart of the prisoner's education
signifted that such instruction should be entirely indei)endent of the
religious instruction given by the chaplain to the prisoneis in general.
The sentiment of religion should be always deemed the lust and strong-
est inflnence in a penitentiary education.
Mv. Tallack, of England, said that the prisons act, passed by Parlia-
ment in 18(!.>, subordinated moral and religions instruction, which he
believed to be an unsound principle. He deplored the small attention
which was paid to convict education in the prisous of the United King-
dom.
Mr. Merry, a Berkshire magistrate, deprecated the pursuit of indus-
trial labor to the exclusion of a proper attention to education, maintain-
ing that silent congregate labor left the head empty and the heart
hard.
Mr. McFarlane, of England, said that every care was taleen in the
Irish prisons to provide, first, for religious and then for industrial and
literary instruction. He was surj)rised to hear Mr. Tallack arraign the
prisons of Ireland on the score of neglect in this particular.
Dr. Varrentrap, of Germany, thought that secular should include physi-
cal education, since the mental and moral equilibrium dej)euded so largely
on the 2)lii/sique. He believed that no limit should be i)laced on secular
instruction, and favored the task-system of labor as affording the pris-
oner a. better opportunity for study.
Miss Mary Carpenter, of England, thought that society was bound to
cultivate tlie powers God had given to a prisoner, and so enaUie him the
better to discharge his duties as a prisoner and a man, and the dilliculty
attending the education of adults should form no obstacle. She regretted
that government did not recognize this duty. Instruction shouhl be so
imparted as to be in itself a pleasure, and its intiuence would then be
most salutary, as tending to wean })risoners from the indulgence of their
lower passions. Scholastic, moral, and religious instructions were closely
allied, and should not be separated.
§ 0. Wlicther it is expedient in eertain cases to employ an imprisonment
consisting in mere privation of liberty icithout ohligation to work. — Count
de Eoresta, of Italy, thought that crimes of passion, not implying great
moral p/erversity, should not be punished by ordinary imprisonment,
but by simple tletention in a fortress or other secure ]>lace, without
the prisoner being required to labor, and without association with those
sentenced to ordinary imi)risonmeut. The natural distinction between
crimes of jtassion and of reflection seemed to indicate the propriety of
making a difference between the ])unishments awarded them. Crimes
of the former category are frequently committed by persons v ho are
young, well educated, and uncorrupted. For such prisoners he consid-
ered the solitude of a cell, with forced labor, merely an aggravation of
^pitnishment, and not calculated to have a reformatory intlueuce. He
believed that simple detention, with the privilege of reading, attending
to their own afiairs, and seeing friends, was a sufficient punishment.
AVhat descriptions of criminals should be treated in this manner should
be determined by the penal code.
Professor Wladrinoff, of Bussia, remarked that simple infractions of
the law did not involve crimiualitv. He thought it should be left to the
140 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
jury to decide to which chiss a prisoner belonged, it being a matter
involving personal liberty.
Mr. Chandler, of Pennsylvania, said that tlie plan snggested by Count
de Foresta was in most successful operation in Pennsylvania, and he
believed that it might be made a success everywhere.
Dr. Mouat dissented from this view. He had been connected with
prisons in India where such a system had been applied, aud he believed
it to be very corruptiug.
Dr. Marquardsen said that the code adopted in Germany three years
ago recognized the principle contended for by Count de Foresta. The
distinction made there, however, was not between crime and crime, but
between criminal and criminal, and it rested with the judge to decide
whether the offender should be kept at hard labor or in eustodia honesta.
The latter class of criminals were imprisoned in a fortress. Speaking
for himself personally, he believed that, in general, persons guilty of
minor offenses should not be left without labor. He believed that the
law of Germany embodied the true principle on this subject. . Under its
provisions, criminals were divided into hard-labor prisoners and such as
were emploj'ed in the trades and professions to which they were accus-
tomed.
§7. Whether seniences for life are expedient. — Baron von Holtzendorff",
of Prussia, in opening the discussion on this question, called attention to
the very decided difference in the-view at present taken of the object to
be attained by i^unishment and that which, as history discloses, was
taken in the past. Salvation was now universally regarded as a primary
end of correction, and this recognition of the principle that men ought
to be reclaimed led to the agitation of the question under discussion.
He did not, however, favor the abolition of life-sentences, if cajtital pun-
ishment were expunged from the penal code; and he believed that all
who favored the abolition of the latter measure must agree with him.
Imprisonment for life must remain the substitute for one or two cen-
turies at least. But such a punishment should, like all other punishments,
contain the elements of ho[)e and fear: fear lest the term of imprison-
ment be actually for life, and hope of release after ten or twelve years
on satisfactory proof of reformation.
Dr. Wines stated that, under the law of Missouri, a prisoner sentenced
for life, who conducted himself with uniform propriety, became entitled
to his liiterty after lifteen years in the state-prison.
Dr. Mouat said that the same i»rincii)le! had been adopted in India.
Hon. D, Haines, of New Jersey, said tliat his objection to lile-sentences
lay in the fact tiiat they left no ho])e in the eonvie.t/s breast, without
wliicli tliei'e (;ould be no reformation. I'^ven if hoi)e remained, it was
t^)o uncertain and remote to lia\'e much inlluenceon the i)risomn\
-Mr. Stevens agree<l with P>aron von noltzen<lorlV, that life-long im-
prisonment was hut the means to an end, and not an end in itself, but
that it was demanded as a substitute in the event of ca])ital punishment;
Ix'ing al)oIisIie(l. Theoretically s[)eakiiig, i)erpetual penalties should not
exist.
Mi-. V'aiu-Iier-('iemieu\', of Switzerland, thought that the security of
society forlta<h' tlu^ lilteratioii of an assassin or ai man condemned to
imprisoiimeiil for life. 'J'he possiltility of a, iclease would iciidei' society
Une;is\'.
Mr. Hastings, of lOngland, said that in that country thei'e was ])racti-
cally no such thing as imprisonnu'iit for life. '^IMiough such sentene«\s
were j)ass<'(l, hope always remained, the prisonei- being unilbrmly liber-
SHOULD KECIDIVISTS RECEIVE SEVERER TREATMENT? 141
ated by tlie Tiome secretary in the event of good conduct for a number
of years.
§ 8. Whether prisoners, on reconviction, should he subjected to a more
severe disciplinary treatment — Mr. S. Petersen, of Bavaria, said that a
recidivist apparently deserved severer treatment for the obstinacy of
his criminal propensities. Yet in view of the fact that courts, in pro-
nouncing- sentence, always took into consideration the circumstance of
a previous conviction, and, as a consequence, increased the length of
the sentence, if the prison authorities also increased the severity of
the punishment by a sterner discii)linary treatment, the prisoner was
punished twice, which was manifestly unfair. The judge alone should
award the increase of punishment.
Mr. Ploos van Amstel, of Holland, was of the same opinion.
Dr. Frey, of Austria, maintained that recidivists should be more
severely treated. They felt this more sensibly than longer sentences.
In the prison of Carlan, in Styria, where there were three stages of im-
prisonment, the iirst of which was exceedingly punitive, recidivists
might be kept in the most severe stage for one-half their sentence, while
those sentenced for a first otfense were never kept in this stage for more
than one-third of the time. The results of this system had been good.
Kev. Mr. Eobin, of France, was convinced, by fifteen years' experience
as prison chaplain, that the recidivist was never reformed by aggra-
vated treatment. He gave an account of two men in a prison where he
had been chaplain, on whom such treatment was tried. One died under
it, and the other grew morose and stubborn; but when, at his request,
the discipline was a little relaxed, the convict changed his course of
conduct, and eventually, upon release, gave satisfactory evidence of refor-
mation. Firmness should always be blended with kindness. To pro-
vide a discharged prisoner the means and o])portunity of eating honest
bread was a more effectual safeguard against relapses than a severity
which was hostile to humanity and Christianity.
M. Stevens did not think that prison authorities should aggravate
the punishment. The law should give longer sentences to recidivists,
but all should receive the same treatment in prison; otherwise, there
would be arbitrary differences, and the severity would go on iucreasing
for the third and fourth offenses. It should be remembered that relapse
was frequently caused by the prisoner finding every door closed against
him on his discharge.
Count Sollohub, of Eussia, thought that the proper punishment of
recidivisits was a question for the law, and not for the prison authori-
ties. If the severity of the disci [)line were increased upon each convic-
tion, a degree of severity would ultimately be reached, incompatible
with reformatory influences. He agreed with Mr. Eobin that ])risoners'
aid societies were the best means of preventing relapses and re-instating
a prisoner in society.
Dr. Guillaume, of Switzerland, said that in that country recidivists
were sentenced for a longer period than other criminals. In some can-
tons they were condemned to bread and water two or three days a week.
This practice he did not favor, since it ofteu left the prisoners in such a
state of debility as to render a relapse easier. He deprecated recourse
to a severity condemned by Christianity.
Count de Foresta thought, with Count Sollohub, that the law, and
not the prison authorities, should prescribe the punishment of recidi-
vists. He thought that any other plan would tend to cruelty. As Mr.
Stevens had remarked, the fact that society was too ofteu responsible
for a prisoner's relapse should prevent excessive severity. He was fur-
142 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
ther opposed to the term recidivist being; applied to a man, one of whose
two oti'enses bad been a crime of passion or exoiteiiient.
Rev. Dr. Bittiuger, of Pennsylvania, advocated an increase of pnnish-
ment for each new ofteuse. In order to effect reformation, we must ap-
peal to tlie criminal's sense of jnstice, but he wonld despise the justice
which had the same pnuishmeut for the bnrglar, convicted of liis fif-
teenth oftense, as for the novice in crime.
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, of Boston, thought that the criminal should
be shown something better than his own savage standard of Justice.
§ 9. ^yhat oufiht to be the ma.riniHni of imprisonment, celluUir or other-
wise, for terms less than life ^ — Dr. ]\[arquardsen, of Bavaria, said this
question was not so much one of principle as of adaptation to local
circumstances. In general, however, he would say that the maximum
ought to be fifteen years, with the possibility of reduction for good be-
liavior. He believed, however, that the character of the punishment,
as to mildness or severity, as well as its duration, should vary according
to the heinousness or veniality of the offeuse ; and in fixing the du-
ration regard should be paid to the character of the punishment. In
Germany, cellular imprisonment was generally limited to three years.
He disapproved of the English system of sentences, under which there
was no intermediate term between two years and five.
Dr. Frey stated that in Austria the term of isolated confinement did
not exceed three years, while the longest term of imprisonment was
twenty years.
Mr. Stevens stated that in Belgium the maximum of cellular confine-
ment had been reduced from twenty years to ten, and then to nine and
a half, when, if a man was found to be no better, he was placed in a con-
gregate prison. It had not been found, however, that prisoners sufiered
more, either in mind or body, under the cellular than under the congre-
gate system.
j\Ir. ^b:)ncure, of Scotland, said that in the prison at Perth it had
been found that cellular confinement for more than three years pro-
du(*ed insanity, notwithstanding that the prisoners had employment
and conimunicated with chaplain, magistrates, and otficers.
Jiaron ^lackay said that in Holland the nmxiinum of cellular confine-
ment was, in l.S.">l, fixed at six months, but had been increased, first to
one year and then to two, and a further increase was favored. The
term would proliably be extended to three years as soon as the number
of cells was sulficient.
Sir Walter Crotlon referred to experiments carefully made at Penton-
villc, England, under the direction of Sir Joshua Jebb. formerly director
of (;()nvi<'t-[»risons, tin; results of which showed that eighteen months
was the longest possil)le i»eriod for which isolation could be safely main-
tained. During the time when transportation was employed as a means
of jtunislunent under the English law, the surgeons at the penal sta-
tions in the colonies reported tiiat the condition of those men who had
been kept in stiict cellular continement for a period of from two to two
and a half years before being transported was particularly unsatisfac-
tory. They were, found to have sutfered to some extent in their nnnds,
and their wills were broken down. It was such reports as these that
(;aused the reduction of t he term of cellular confinement to ninc^ months.
« 10. Whclhrr or not imprisonment shonld he nniform in nidure, and dif-
fer on h/ in hiif/th. — (!(.unt SoPohub, of K'ussia, in oi)ening the discus-
HJon on this (|uestion, remarked that the ol)ject of a hospital was not to
ke,<'p its [)atients, hut to send them out cured. In like manner, the
ol)ject of a prison should be to combat the moral malady, and return
PRISON LABOR PENAL AND INDUSTRIAL. 14.3
patients to society cured. As hospitals, moreover, endeavor to ^uard
aiiuinsr a rela|)se into physical disease, so the prison authorities shoukl
direct their efforts to ])revent a rehipso into tlie moral disease of crime.
It should be considered in every case whether the offense was the result
of perversity and a passion for crime, or of some sudden excitement or
temptation. Different classes of criuiiuals, like differently-affected pa-
tients, required various kinds of treatuient, and every precautionshould
be taken against contagion, by which the disease mijiht be aggravated
and a cure rendered more difficult. Each kind of prison should have a
s})ecial aim ; a prison which attempted to effect two different objects
would succeed in neither. There should be two classes of prisons: one
for convicts whose characters evidenced moral perversity, the other for
those whose offenses were the result of a sudden break-down of princi-
l»le or of uncontrolled passion. This was the principle of division fol-
lowed in liussia.
Dr. Mouat admitted that it was desirable to make punislnneut pro-
portionate to guilt, but feared that there was no moral barometer by
which guilt could be strictly measured.
Count de Foresta, of Italy, said there existed in that country and in
France three classes of puinshment: sentences to sim])le imprisonment,
to reclusion, and to hard labor. The first class could not exceed five
years, except in the case of recidivists, whose term might be doubled.
The prisoner was employed in industrial labor. Eeclusion had five
years as a minimum and ten years as a maximum, and involved the
loss of civil rights. Hard labor implied civic degradation and civil
death, and persons sentenced to it for a term remained subject for their
lives to police-supervision. Speaking for himself, he did not favor this
system. He contended that there should be but one kind of sentence,
the only difference being in length, and there should be different pris-
ons with different disciplines for the various terms of imprisonment.
Prisoners for three or four years should not be placed in the same
buildings or treated in the same way as those sentenced for ten or fif-
teen years.
'§11. — Prison lahor — penal and industrial. — The question whether
prison labor should be merely penal, or whether it should be industrial
only, or whether there should be a mixture of both, was introduced by
Mr. Frederic Hill, of England. Mr. Hill declared himself an earnest
advocate of industrial, as opposed to purely lienal, labor, such as the
crank, tread- mill, shot drill, &c. He recapitulated the main arguments
for and against industrial labor in prisons. Its opponents, he said,
based their hostility mainly on four grounds: 1, that it renders im-
prisonuieut less irksome, and consequently less deterrent, than it
should be; 2, that it is difficult to procure for prisoners such kinds
of work as Avill be really remunerative; 3, that, however suited to
long imprisonments, industrial labor is not adapted to short sentences;
and, 4, that its introduction into prisons subjects the honest, free laborers
outside to unfair competition. In reply to the first objection, Mr. Hill
urged that irksonieuess is not the chief end of prison discipline. It
neither prepares the prisoner for a life of honest industry himself nor
eradicates motives to corrui)t others, while it is highly improbable that
its deterrent effect on others would be at all commensurate with the
evils it engenders in those who are brought under such a system — the
irritation, resentment, obstinacy, and hardness which it unquestionably
produces; besides which, the confinement of a prison and the other
privations attendant upon a convict's life are in themselves sufliciently
irksome. The only true test whether a prison has become attractive, is
144 IXTERXATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
to opeu wide its doors to all comers, witliout demanding?, as now, a
qualification of crime. But altbougb, during a considerable part of
Mr. HilFs service as prison-inspector in Scotland, free entrance was
really given, altliougb no legal provision was made for tlie able-bodied
poor, and altbougli industrial labor was required of all, tbe proportion
of paupers to compulsory ])risoners was seldom more tban one to fifty.
To tbe second objection, Mr. Hill opposed bis own experience iis in-
spector in Scotland, where tbe main difiticulties be encountered lay in
tbe shortness of tbe sentences and tbe indisposition and incapacity of
prison governors and their subordinates for this special duty. The
third argument Mr. Hill met by sbowing, first, that, even in cases of
short imi)risonment, labor, productive in some degree at least, can
always be provided; and, secondly, tbat when such punishments are
but repetitions, often twenty or thirty times in succession, of the
same penalty, the true remedy is not to render tbe system of
discipline suitable to so absurd a practice, but, by a change in the law,
to get rid of tbe practice itself.
In answer to the allegation of injustice done to honest mechanics by
introducing trades into prisons, Mr. Hill pointed out tbat from the ex-
tremely small amount of manufacturing carried on at penal institutions
the competition must uecessarilj- be very small ; and that from the caiiB
that a public department would be likely to take to avoid precipitancy
in selling below tbe market-rates, the danger to ordinary trade from
prison labor would probably be less than from the same amount of free
labor. Moreover, cheapness in price is an advantage to the greater
number, so that, even granting tbat prison manufactures did sensibly''
atiect tbe permanent prices of articles, which he denied, such effect
would be a good rather tban an evil. And, as a last consideration, he
urged that every shilling saved to the public by prison earnings is a
shilling added to tbat fund from which wages must be paid.
Having thus noticed tbe arguments of tbe advocates of penal labor,
Mr. Hill ]>roceede(l briefly to enumerate the grounds of his advocacy of
the universal introduction of remunerative industrial labor into prisons.
The following is a summary : 1. That to make labor useful ami i)rb-
ductive in i)rison, as well as out of prison, is in accordance with nature ;
tbat to strip it of these qualities is, if ilot absolutely unnatural, at
least artificial ; a course demanding justification and proof of its
l)ropri«'ty — a jtroof not given. 2. Tbat by means of useful and produc-
tive labor much of tlie cost to society of tbe apprelieusion, trial, and
imprisoniiient of <;riniinals may be repaid and soinetbing at least done
toward indemnifying tbe jiersons wronged. 3. Tbat such eniph^yment,
being ficc Ijom eveiytbing tbat is rej)nlsive and degrading, becomes
associated in tbe i)ris()ner\s mind witb ])leusural)le tboughts, and tends
to make bim look upon work as deseiving of respect. 4, 'JMiat by tbis
kind of work a jirisoner, besides making tbe payments mentioned under
tbe se(;ond licad, may help to sujtport Ids family and may i)r()vi(le afund
Avitb wliic]i,at tLie end of liis continement, (iitber to i»ay tbe (;ost of emi-
gration or to liave tlio means of making a. fresh and honest start in his
own country. 5. Tbat [)risoners wbo bave been emi)loyed in useful and
])roilu(;tive work ari^, at tlu;ir liberation, much better armed against
relapse into crime, as wellasmucb better i)re|)ai('d to obtain an honest
li\ ing, tban tbose wbose lal»or lias l)eeii merely jienal, and tbat, in fact,
tbe proportion snbse(|iiently doing well is niiieli larger,
-Majftr i'liUbrd, go\criior of Slalford jail, lOnglaiid, contended that
]»iisons were not lelbrmatories, but, sboiild be a, terror to evil doers.
Jle considered tbat penal lal)or was necessary in the case of "repeaters,''
PRISON LABOR PENAL AND INDUSTRIAL. 145
siuce the professional thief or drunkard was utterly insensible to high
moral teaching*. He thought, however, that such otfenders should not
be kept in a county jail, but sent to a convict establishment for a period
long enough to eradicate his evil habits.
General Pilsbury, of Albany, thought penal labor destitute of any
reformatory element. He had always found in American prisons that
the most successful institutions, in a reformatory point of view, were
those where industrial labor was so managed as to produce a substan-
tial income.
Dr. Wines brought to the attention ot the congress the large indus-
trial prison of Count Sollohub, at Moscow, the reformatory results of
whose discipline were remarkable, only nine prisoners having returned
during six years out of 2,100 discharged. At this prison, each convict
was permitted to choose the trade he would learn, and, on mastering it,
was allowed two-thirds of his earnings. So great a stimulus was this
to industry that a man often became a skilled workman in two months.
To this system the distinguished count attributed the surprising reform-
atory results mentioned above.
Mr. Hibbert, M. P., of England, said that an act of Parliament of 1SG5
provided that the visiting magistrates might, under the sanction of the
home secretary, substitute other forms of hard labor for the tread-mill,
crank, and shot-drill. In Salford prison, penal labor was required of all
prisoners during the first three months of their sentence, after which
they might be employed in carpet-weaving, cocoa-mat making, &c.
Nor was the penal labor wholly unproductive, siuce the tread-mill, besides
pumping water for prison uses, supplied motive-power for the industrial
labor. The prison earnings last year defrayed all expenses except the
salaries of officers. The sentences were, as a rule, too short to allow of
industrial labor being successfully carried on ; out of (3,163 prisoners,
4,110 having been sent for terms less than a month, of whom 2,031 were
sentenced for only seven days. Industrial labor being impossible under
such sentences, he favored penal labor on the ground of its deterrent
inflnence.
Sir John Bowring vehemently condemned the tread-mill, and rejoiced
that continental languages had no word for it. It should be called a
work- waster or wind-raiser. It hardened the old jail-bird, leading him to
associate labor' with non-productiveness, who well knew how to cast all
the burden on the weaker or less experienced prisoners.
Mr. Ploos van Amstel, of Holland, said that remunerative industrial
labor was adopted in the Dutch prisons, a portion of the prisoners
w^ages going to himself. He believed this system beneficial alike to the
state and to the prisoner.
Colonel Colvill, governor of Coldbath Fields prison, London, said
that he had the largest tread-mill in England in his prison, six hundred
men being employed on it at one time. He never knew a man improved
by it. On the other hand, accidents frequently occurred; many had
their legs and arms broken ; vejy recently a man undergoing a short
sentence broke both his legs. It was, moreover, unfair, since the old
hands could readily shift all the labor on their younger associates,
who, especially if weak-chested, were sometimes injured for life.
Mr. Stevens, of Belgium, protested against all labor the tendency of
which was to brutalize the prisoner. Penal labor was unknown on the
continent.
Dr. Mouat said that during his experience in India he had found
non-productive labor brutalizing. The tread-mill was tried at Calcutta,
but caused many accidents and was abolished as cruel and unjust.
H. Ex. 185 10
146 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
The anger and bitterness shown by prisoners on asceuding or descend-
ing it had always made him feel that it was unchristian. To make
prisoners miserable is not the true way to regenerate them. They must
have an interest in their work, and be taught to apply it to useful pur-
poses. The prisoners under his charge had, during the last five or six
years of his administration, repaid by their labor 40 per cent, of the
cost of their maintenancej thus relieving the tax-payers and preserving
the convicts' self-respect.
Dr. Frey, of Austria, said that in the Austrian prisons industrial
labor prevailed. This alone would call forth the full working powers of
the prisoner.
CHAPTEE XIX.
THE PRISONER AFTER HIS LIBERATION.
§ 1. Best mode of aidinfj dlsoliarged prisoners. — Mr. Murray Browne,,
secretarj' of the Metropolitan Discharged Prisoners' Relief Society of
London, opened the discussion with a paper showing the operation of
the English system of aiding liberated prisoners. The thirty-four
societies established for this purpose are all voluntary associations of
benevolent persons. The majority, however, possess a semi-official
character, from the fact that the gratuities allowed by law to the pris-
oner on his discharge are, instead of being given to him dii-ectly, placed
in the hands of a prisoners' aid society in trust, the society being re-
({uired to account for each sum so received, which varies in amount
from a few shillings to £3. Tiie additional funds required by the socie-
ties for the ])rosecution of their work are raised by voluntary contri-
bution.
These societies may be divided into two classes : those which 'assist
men and those which assist women. Of the former, only two maintain
homes or refuges. The most important of these is the Wakelield In-
dustrial Home, where discharged prisoners are maintained as inmates,
and kept at industrial work, often for a considerable time, until employ-
ment can be procured for them elsewhere.
Tills system has been tried in many other parts of England; but,
although its success at AVakelield has been admirable, elsewhere it has
failed, and a majority of the societies prefer another plan. They aim to
find work for the i)risoner as soon as possible, to provide him with pecu-
niary sui)port while waiting, and to aid him morally, by advice and
assistance, as far as may be in their power. The most difficult part of
their task is the finding of employment. Eor this purpose a paid agent
— usually an old ])olice-officer — is emi)loyed, who is required to use great
judgnuMit and ]>erseverance. It is found, in general, that the prisoner's
best diance lies in a return to his own neighborhood, there to resume
his former trade or occui)ation. Immigration is very seldom resorted to,
rhi(!Hy on account of (expense. iMiiny lads are sent to sea in the mer-
chant-scrvi(;(^ As a rule, the dilliculties in the way of obtaining situa-
tions Ibr (lischarg(!<l male jjrisoncrs are not of such a nature that they
cannot be ovi-rcomci by tact and energy. IMiere ari^, however, some per-
sons fitted only for situations involving trust, such as clerks and others,
leu- whom it is veiy haid to fiiul (Mnpioynu'ut. The society with which
Mr. Jlrowne is himself connected has, for the jjast eight years, aided live
liundred liberated luisoiu'rs auuiuilly ; and it has been the (experience of
that oigaui/ation that it. isiie\ei' necessary to turn adrill a nuiu able
AID TO DISCTfAliGED PRISONERS. 147
and willing to work becanse no work could be found for him. This, Mr.
Browne stated, was the general experience of prisoners' aid societies
throughout England. And it further appears, from the records of his
society and others, that not more than 5 per cent, of those who have
been assisted in finding work have been recommitted.
The societies which aid discharged female prisoners have, in some
respects, a more difticult task, since, with the exception of a certain
number of first convictions, almost all convicted women in England are
prostitutes as well as thieves, thus requiring a double treatment. Be-
sides which, private families very naturally object to receiving women
fresh from the prison walls, the genuineness of whose reformation has
not been tested. Accordingly, all female prisoners' aid societies employ
homes of some sort or other.
The refuges for convict-women {L e., women who have been sentenced
to five years' penal servitude) are three in number, and possess a defi-
nite ofiticial character, somewhat resembling the intermediate prisons of
the Crofton, or Irish, system. No prisoner is allowed to enter them
until she has received a certain number of marks in prison and has
served a fixed proportion of her sentence, when she receives a ticlcct of
leave and, at her own request enters the home, from which she may be
returned to the prison for misconduct. While she remains at the refuge,
she is employed in inilustrial labor. When the sentences of the inmates
expire, the managers find employment — usually at domestic service —
for all those who require it. The results are of the most satisfactory
description. These homes for convict- women, being, in one sense, a part
of the prison system, are partially supported by the state, but in part also
by voluntary contributions.
Other societies aiding discharged female prisoners exercise their own
discretion as to the women they receive into their homes. They have
no legal control over the inmates, nor do the}" receive any considerable
assistance from state funds. They usually place their proteges at do-
mestic service when they leave the homes.
Mr. Browne stated that the societies in general found themselves
greatly hampered in their work by the want of funds, which, he re-
marked, was to be deplored on economic as well as reformatory grounds,
since the pecuniary gain to the state-coffers from the reformation of even
a few prisoners would i)ay the whole expense of a prisoners' aid society
over and over again. He was of opinion, therefore, that liberal assist-
ance should be granted from the public funds to these organizations.
Mr. Powell, of Xew York, believed it to be the duty of government to
found asylums for discharged prisoners, which should not be called
prisons or houses of refuge, but industrial institutions. These institu-
tions he would have conducted in some measure on the co-operative
plan, so that the laborer should share the advantages of his toil. In
addition to these establishments there should be in every community
voluntary societies for aiding discharged inisoners. Lastly, he believed
that prisoners should be taught the lesson of abstinence from intoxi-
cating liquors as a beverage.
M. d'Alinge, of Saxony, considered the question under discussion a
most important one. There were in his country several societies for the
aid of liberated jirisoners, King John having founded the first forty years
ago. Lately these societies had been extending help to- the families of
discharged prisoners also.
Mr. Kankin, of England, said that he was honorary secretary of a
society which undertook the care of prisoners discharged from convict-
I)risons exclusively, while the other thirty-three societies took care of
148 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
those discbaroed from county prisons. The record of re-convictious
from 1809 to 1871 showed that of those whom his society had aided less
that 6 per cent, had relapsed into crime.
Baron Mackay, of Holland, stated that in the Ketherlauds a society
for the aid of discharged prisoners had existed since 1823. Members
of the society visit the prisons and distribute good books to the in-
mates. On a prisoner's discharge the society tries to find a situation
for him, gives him clothing and tools, or, rather, pays for his emigration.
Especially are juvenile otieuders made the object of its care. The
society formerly maintained, at the city of Ley den, a school for the
training of this class of delinquents for the navy. Unfortunately, how-
ever, owing to the refusal of the government to receive the inmates as
volunteers, this institution had to be abandoned. The society has many
branches in different places in Holland, and in sundry towns it has
ladies' committees to visit female prisoners and promote their getting
situations after their discharge. Experience has shown how eminently
fit ladies are for these duties.
Mrs. Meredith, of England, founder and manager of an establishment
for the aid of discharged female prisoners, presented a paper in which
the increased proportion, year by year, of recommitments of women
■was noticed, and the proposition that it was impossible to help this
class of criminals efiiciently without the aid of women was strenuously
urged.
Kev. Mr. E. Eobin, honorary secretary of the Paris Protestant Dis-
charged Prisoners' Aid Society, said that in Prance the work of caring
for discharged prisoners (called patronage) embraced industrial, moral,
and religious instruction. Its aim was twofold, ^iz : First, to improve
the prisoners' moral condition : and, secondly, to remove the distrust
felt toward them, thus removing the two chief causes of their relapse
into crime. The patronage extended by the Paris society commences
by making a selection of the prisoners, through visiting them while
in confinement, and by supplying them with religious books. On his
discharge, the prisoner receives a card, and is thereby constituted a
proiege of the society, who furnish him Avith food and clothing (no
money is given) for a few days. When he obtains work, the society
still Avatches over him, and he is reijuired to report to them every
change of residence, tlie society still lending him material aid and
moral support until he has become completely rehabilitated. This sys-
tem luul [)roved very efficacious, not more than 5 per cent, of those so
aided liaving relapsed into crime. jNIr. Pobin ])articularly urged the
necessity of the aid societies having free access to the prisoners before
their discharge.
Mr. Murray JJrownc agreed with Mr. Pobiii that patronage should
begin in the prison, and observed that that was practically dono in
England, since the clia])lain was invariably either a member or the sec-
retary of a jirisonei's' aid society.
A nu-mber from J''i'ance i)resente(l an a(jcount of the work of the ])at-
ronage eoinmitlee of Protestant ladies at JMontpelier. Tiiis society
maintains a honu' ibr dis(;liitrged I'lolestant female ])ris()ners, where
religious inshuetion is given, and tlie managers of which eiidea^vor to
lind situations (bi- those inmates who give satisfactory evidence of ref-
oiinatioM. "J'lie results wer(; re]>res(!nted as most gratifying.
Dr. (luillaunie, of Swit/.erhmd, tluaiglit that tlie assistaiu'e given to
discliMrged prisoners should be both moral and industrial, and should
be given both by the .stat«' and by voluntary so(;ieties. Nor should the
iniporf:iTu*e of teaching prisoners a trade in ]irison bi* overlooked, since
REHABILITATION OF PRISONERS. 149
this would be of material assistauce to them on discharge. Employ- .
ment, too, should be provided for them as soon as possible, lest the
prisoner, while wandering about in search of work, should lose his
desire for it and once more fall into evil ways. ' The prevalent opinion
in Switzerland was that the Crot'ton system best attained these desired
objects.
Mr. Bremner, of England, said that the experience of prisoners' aid
societies in that country showed but little success in dealing- with female
criminals, which he attributed in great measure to the fact that female
visitors and agents were not employed. The aid furnished to the socie-
ties by the state, too, was inadequate. So important did he consider
the work of aiding discharged i^risoners that he believed that some plan
of moral and material assistance should be embodied in the criminal
legislation of a country, to become as definite a part of the general sys-
tem as are the trial and imprisonment of the offender.
§ 2. Best means of securing the rehahiUtatlon of prisoners. — Mr. Stevens,
of Belgium, said that the reliabilitation, to be complete, must be both
moral and legal. The former was to be obtained bj" giving each prisoner
instruction in the particular religion which he professed. The most
perfect religious freedom is preserved in the Belgian i)risons, and he
earne^stly contended for the same freedom in the prisons of all countries.
The legal rehabilitation of the prisoner was to be effected, in his Judg-
ment, b3' freeing him from all restrictions, save those to which honest
men are subjected. To make the forfeiture of political rights consequent
upon imprisonment was to hang a weight around the prisoner who was
striving to regain his position. A special patronage might be awarded
to convicts whose conduct was good during imprisonment, which should
be exercised over women by women and over men by men. He did not
favor police supervision of criminals, as practised on the continent,
although the friendly supervision contemplated by the Crofton system
met with his approval.
Mr. Hastiugs, of England, said that by act of Parliament any bench
of magistrates in charge of a jail might employ, in addition to the regu-
lar Protestant chaplain, a Roman Catholic chaplaiu, and pay his salary
out of the funds at their disposal. There was then a bill before Parlia-
ment making the employment of such chaplains compulsory.
Sir Walter Crofton said that in all the Irish prisons there were em-
ployed, in addition to the chaplaiu belonging to the Church of England,
Roman Catholic and Presbyterian chaplains.
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, of Boston, thought that in dealing with this
question it should be borne in mind that, as Mr. Emerson had said of
the death of his child, "perhaps the world, and not the infant, failed."
Too frequently the " failure" was rather on the part of society than of
the prisoner.
Baron Mackay was not in favor of the rehabilitation of prisoners be-
ing effected by a judicial decree. The most perfect religious freedom
prevailed in the prisons of Holland and Germany.
Mr. Baker, of England, salt) that the loss of character suffered by a
prisoner in consequence of his incarceration was a wholesome and
natural part of his punishment. He maintained that it should not be
easy for a liberated convict to obtain attractive and remunerative situa-
tions; he ought to begin his new career with alower kind of work, and rise
to higher positions as he showed himself worthy. Supervision, as prac-
tised in England, was a powerful instrument iu the rehabilitation of the
prisoner ; it was very rare to find a man under supervision out of work.
Dr. Wines enumerated the civil rights which, in most of the states of
150 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
the American Union, were forfeited by a conviction for felony, and ex-
plained the '' commntation-laws " of bis country, under which a convict
may shorten bis term by good conduct. In several of the states, be said,
an irreproachable prison record wrought, of itself, a complete legal re-
habilitation of the prisoner, restoring him at once to all his civil rights.
Hon. Mr. Chandler, of Pennsylvania, stated that a conviction for fel-
ony in that State did not work a forfeiture of any political rights.
Sir John Pakington, of England, deprecated what he had conceived
to be an implication on the part of Mr. Stevens that lioman Catholics
were not allowed religious freedom in English prisons. He claimed
that the English people were universally opposed to the ignoring of de-
nominational differences among prisoners, and stated that as a member
of Parliament he had supported the bill mentioned by Mr. Hastings, re-
quiring county jail authorities to employ lioman Catholic chaplains.*
§ 3. Best mode of givinr/ remission of sentences and regulating conditional
discJiarges. — Sir AValter Crofton said that remission of sentences and
conditional liberation were now interwoven with the convict- system of
the United Kingdom. The maximum remission to convicts sentenced
to penal servitude was a fourth of their term, after deducting the nine
mouths spent in solitary confinement. The title of a man to remission
of sentence was determined by a system of marks, by which he advanced
from class to class, until, according to his deserts as thus indicated, he ob-
tained a partial or entire remission. This system, in eflFect, amounted
to a partial substitution of labor-sentences for time-sentences. Sir Walter
defended the system of public-works prisons at some length, saying that
they were based on jirogressive classification, and pointing to the vindica-
tion of the Irish system by a recent parliamentary investigating com-
mittee, known as Lord Deven's commission. He regarded conditional
liberation, combined with registration, as the only reliable mode of test-
ing the value of prison training and of obtaining trustworthy criminal
statistics, without which there can be little unity of action. He was of
opinion tliat it was a great in-otection to society, since it surrounded the
commission of crime with obstructions so formidable as to deter habitual
offenders.
Mr. Tallack, of England, in reply to Sir AValtcr's defense of the pub-
lic-works ]nisons, defended the cellular system, as ai)proved by the con-
gresses of Utrecht and Frankfort, i)ieventing companionship with evil
and allowing abundant coinmunication with good. He call(>d attention
to th(5 fact tliat a few months ago :i convict at Spike Island had mur-
dered a f'ellow-]>risoner, and stat(>d that there had been repeated murders
at I'ortland, Chatham, and other ])nl)lic-works ])risons.
Mr. Stevens stated that in lielginm conditional liberation was arrived
at in another way from tliat enij)loved in l^higlaiul. Pednction of time
was allowed; but as sei)arate detention without i)ossibility of demorali-
zation, andwitli intercourse with good counselors, was ])referred to con-
gregate lal)or, the reduction depended not so much on a prisoners con-
duct as on his having uinhM'goiM^ a- ]>eiiod of se])aration proportionate
to the sentence. I'here wer<r certain i)riviieges to be earned by good
comliief, however, among wlii<'h was libeiation w ith cuitailment or re-
mission of ])olice supervision. Incases of ('xe]ni)laiy conduct an<l entire
reform, the ro\al ])rerogalive. of ]iar(h)n was exerciscMl. Lifej)risoners
were kept in ceMnlar (^onlinenuMit for ten years, when, if they were. (;on-
HJdered worthy of it, conditional liberation was granted them. Ifun-
* Tlic) hill alliirled to was witliilr.iwn Ix-foio tho close of thn session, owiii;; to a want
oftitnc. in llic i louse of L'oiiiiiioiis to discuss it.
CONDITIONAL LIBERATION POLICE SUPERVISION. 151
worthy tliey were collected ia a coininon prison, without hope of release.
The result of this system was that the proi)ortiou of recidivists to those
convicted of a first offeuse was but 4 or 5 per cent.; aud the annual
number of criminals had declined from 7,000, to -4,000, in spite of increas-
ing population and wealth.
Hon. Joseph li. Chandler, of Pennsylvania, replying to Sir Walter Crof-
ton's defense of the English system of granting "tickets of license,"
said that in the Eastern penitentiary of his State there were forty con-
victs who had received these licenses. He was no friend to a system
which led men to pretend to be reformed, and declared his decided i^ref-
erence for the cellular over the Crofton system. He denied that that
system was "solitary," and avowed that the only solitude it involved
was a solitude as to demoralizing influences. Besides which it saved a
man who was trying to lead a new life from being taunted by a former
fellow-prisoner with being an ex-convict, thus often bringing upon him
unmerited suspicion.
Mr. Frederic Hill regretted to hear of the invasion of Pennsylvania
by ticket-of-leave men ; but by way of explanation stated that the sys-
tem, as formerly administered, did not, as now, make liberation depend
upon good conduct ; and he thought that the men mentioned by Mr.
Chandler must have been liberated under the discarded system. As an
inspector of prisons, he had at first favored the cellular system, but ex-
perience had weaned him from it. Mere isolation, while excellent as a
part of a system, was not a system per se. Under the separate system,
the absence of temptation rendered it dilficult to test reformation.
Major Du Cane, chairman of the directors of English convict-prisons,
said that in these institutions a prisoner was obliged to elfect his dis-
charge by his industry. The maximum remission of sentence was one-
fourth of the time remaining after serving out his nine months of sep-
arate confinement. Great precautions were taken to insure the remis-
sion being justly awarded. When conditionally liberated, a prisoner
was under the supervision of the police, to whom he was obliged to re-
port himself. If he gave evidence of going astray, the police might
take him before a magistrate, and on proof of his misconduct he was
sent back to prison.
Mr. Xevin, one of the directors of the western penitentiary of Penn-
sylvania, gave an account of the change made in that prison from the
cellular to the congregate system, wliich, he said, had been attended
with great benefit.
Dr. Frey, of Austria, said that in that country cellular imprisonment
was limited to three yenrs ; after that ])ortion of his sentence had ex-
pired, a prisoner was placed under the congregate system. For him-
self, he favored such a combination of the two systems. A prisoner
should mingle with his fellow-convicts, so as to become prepared for
Te-entering society, since, if kept entirely in solitary confinement, he
would not be likely to withstand temptation on his release.
Mr. Hastings, of England, remarked that keeping a prisoner apart
was like keeping the hand on a spring; the moment you lifted your
hand, it flew up. When a man thus treated was discharged, the
change was so great that he was almost certain to fall back into his
original habits. He should be educated for liberation, after passing-
through the cellular stage, by associating with his fellow-criminals ;
aud next by going to an intermediate prison, where he had much
greater liberty, and where a further test was applied. If he still went
on well, and gradually acquired habits of industry and fitness for lib-
■erty, he passed into the further stage of liberation under supervision.
152 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
§ 4. Siq)€rvisio)i of discharged conrtots. — Mr. Baker, of England,
opened the discussion by explaining the law of England on this sub-
ject. Under that law, a person convicted a second time of felony may
be condemned, in addition to imprisonment, to police supervision for a
period not exceeding seven years. He must, at the end of each month,
report himself and give an account of his conduct either to the police
or some person authorized to receive his report. He must give notice
of a change of residence to the police of the district which he leaves
and of that to whicli he goes. The police, as long as he complies with,
the law, always prove his friends, assisting him in finding work and
giving him, in case of need, money furnished by the prisoners' aid soci-
eties. This system, Mr. Baker contended, was kind to the supervised,
offering him complete liberty as long as he conducted well, and exercis-
ing over him that friendly guardianship so useful to persons of intirm
moral character. Moreover, it seemed to the public a protection of
seven years instead of one, and allowed the term of imprisonment to
be shortened by one-half, thus saving oue-haif the total cost of his
expenses.
Mr. F. Hill remarked that Eev. Mr. Clay organized supervision
in Lancashire years before Parliament adopted it. He found it caused
a diminution of crime and was beneficial to the prisoners, the police
helping them to obtain work.
]\Ir. Murray Browne said it was sometimes alleged that the police su-
pervision would prevent prisoners getting work, but prisoners' aid soci-
eties knew that this was not the case. Last year, on the home secre-
tary taking their opinion, thirteen societes out of sixteen were favorable
to the system.
Mr. Stevens contended that, in countries where an organized police
existed, discharged prisoners should be under no more supervision than
other citizens. In Belgium a man might be sent by the police to a
small place, not being permitted to go to large communities, but he
might not finfl work there, and would be, in consequence, likely to relapse.
CHATTER XX.
MISCELLANEOUS POINTS.
§ I. Whether prison oiflcers need special irainiiKj for their icorh. — Dr.
Guillaume, of Switzerland, opened the discussion, maintainingthe affirm-
ative of the question. Ho laid down the iK)sitions that it is for the in-
terest of society that criminals shoid<l be reformed, and that they will
be(;om<', good oidy when unceasingly surrounded by good inliuences.
From th(;se jiremises he argued that the inlerior as well as the higher
oflicers of a prison should be ac(|uaintcd with the moral aiul ])edagogic
means of ])eiiit('ntiary treatment, which acciuaintance involved a recog-
nition of the |)rinci|)le that a special education of prison ofiicers is neces-
sary and indispensable. It was for each country to determine whether
it is <l(^sirable to establish normal scliools for this ]mri)Ose, or whether
the emj)loy»''S should i)ass a i)re|)aratory training in a ])rison, or receive
a course; of jieriodical theoretic teacliing. S])eaking for himself, he
wished the school forhaining ]>rison oHiccis to be in ccuinection with
a [irison. ilaving seN'ct<'(l men of ordinaiy intelligence, command of
t<;mi)er, i^c, they should be put into tiic training juison to learn their
work, after which they should bo i»romoted aixording to merit, until,
EDUCATION OF PRISON OFFICERS. 153
possibly, tliey readied the top. These remarks did not apply to the
governors or wardens of prisons, who shonld i)ossess snperior qaalifica-
tions, and be endowed with a kind heart, sound judgment, general knowl-
edge, and good temper. In conclusion. Dr. Guillaume said that he might
summarize his views on this topic in the resolution adopted by the Prison
Congress of Cincinnati in 1870, viz :
Special training, as well as high qualities of. head and heart, is required to make a
good prison or reformatory officer. The administration of public puuislunent will not
become scientihc, uniform, and successful until it is raised to the dignity of a profes-
sion, and men are specially trained for it as they are for other pursuits.
Major Du Cane, director of English convict-prisons, thought that
l^rison officers, like physicians and soldiers, should learn their duty from
actual experience. No preliminary instruction could be as valuable as
seeing the supervision of skilled officials in actual practice. He believed
that the tone of the English prison officials was all that it should be.
A moderate amount of intelligence and education was required, and due
care was taken to secure these qualifications, as well as iirmness, hon-
esty, and good temper. It was expected of them to convince the pris-
oners that society was not their euemy, but ouly wished to show them
the way of well-doing. He believed that the prison officials in Eugland
did their duty efficiently, and that when recruits entered such a body
they entered the best school in which to learn their duties.
Baron Mackay, of Holland, said that Dutch legislation discouraged
technical education, believing that better material was found in a man
with a general education than iu oue trained ad hoc. lu the cellular
l)rison at Amsterdam (the largest in Holland) it^ had not been found,
'necessary to employ specially-trained officers. He agreed with Dr.
Guillaume that training was desirable if it could be obtained within the
prison-walls ; but he objected to a normal school outside the prison for
the inculcation of theories. He favored the promotion of subalterns, so
trained, as vacancies occufred in the prison staff.
Sir Harry Yerney, M. P., while not doubting that persons taken from
the intelligent classes might make good prison officers, was, neverthe-
less, of the opinion that persons specially trained to the work would be
more efficient. It had occurred to him. Why should not prison governors
be selected from the subaltern officials? In England they were taken
from the army and navy; but it might, perhaps, be better to advance
prison officers. Many years ago, while visiting Dr. Wichern, at the
Kauhe Hans, near Hamburg, he had seen there a number of young men
being educated to take the place of officers in the prisons at Berlin.
The idea struck him favorably at the time, and subsequent reiiection
had confirmed him in his opinion.
Mr.,Rathbone, of England, pointed out an objection to the promotion
of subalterns to the highest offices, viz, that the salaries now given did
not attract men of education to these posts. A governor needed quick
perception of character and great firmness — qualities, in his opinion^
not specially cultivated by prison life. .
Major Fulford, governor of Stafford jail, England, thought it would
be absurd to have a normal school for subordinate officers. At his jail,
such officers were always taken on probation, and, if found incompetent,,
were dismissed.
Dr. Mouat, of England, thought that, what the hospital and dissecting-
room were to the surgeon, the prison was to officials. Intelligence and
good moral character were indispensable, but it was in practical expe-
rience that they mnst learn their work. As to prison governors, he
thought that, other things being equal, men should be selected who
154 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
were geutlemen and men of etlycation in tlie broadest sense of the
words. A prison was a moral hospital, which required a large amount
of knowledge of mental phenomena, of religion, and education, and
high aims in reclaiming the idle and vicious. Some special training was
therefore advisable for both subordinate and superior officers.
Dr. AVines said that M. Demetz, the founder of the reformatory at
Mettray, was so convinced of the necessity of a special training for
those intrusted with the care of criminal men and boys that he had es-
tablished a preparatory school, and spent an entire year with his col-
leagues in training twelve or fifteen young men as officers before he ad-
mitted a single inmate. The school had been kept up ever since, with
twenty-five to thirty young men constantly in attendance, having a
three years' course of training, and M. Demetz was strongly of opinion
that Mettray would not have succeeded without it. The success of this
reformatory probably sui^passed that of any other institution iu the
world, scarcely 5 i)er cent, of those who left it ever returning to a career
of crime.
§ 2, Whether tmnsportatlon is admissible and expedient in punishment
of crime. — Count de Foresta, of Italy, iu opening the discussion, said
that transportation, as carried on iu France — transportation with com-
pulsory labor in a colony — he approved of as the best, punishment for great
criminals, believing that it answered perfectly the double object of all
punishment, viz, the protection of society within the limits of justice,
and the reformation or amendment of the convict. It protects society
by casting out from its bosom the most dangerous criminals, avoiding
the grave inconveuien£'-es of relapses, and deterring would-be criminals
by the prospect of banishment from their country and family. It en-
courages the convict b^' giving him a hope of becoming again useful to
society and beginning a new life far from his old haunts, whither he
may bring his family, or, if he have none, may found a new one. While
thus ajiproving of the main features of the^ French, as distinguished
from the English, system of transi)ortation, the cou)it pointed out the
defects of the latter and criticised them sveerely.
Mr. Pols, of Holland, thought that to send convicts to another coun-
try was unfair. If sent to a new colony, the natives were doomed to
extermination. If the convicts were colonized, their descendants would,
as iu the English colonies, object to receive them, and the system would
again have to be changed. Transi)ortation for any length of time was
impracticable.
Count Sollohub, of Ifussia, thouglit that transportation might be ben-
eficial if a locality were selected which needed colonization and cultiva-
tion and extiirnal aid for Hie develoinncnt of its resources.
Afr. Hastings, of JOngland, remarked that to send convicts to an
inhabited country was to wi'ong its citizens, whowouhl, when they were
able, i-esist it. To send them to an uninhabited (M)untiy was merely to
send 1 hem to a jnison ten thousand or twelve thousand miles off, far
i-emoved fiom i)ul)lic su])ervision,.Ji system always liable to great abuse.
Moreovei', tin? cost of the sui)])ortof tin; convict was as great or greater
as atlioiiM', and the ex))ense()i' the voyage had to be iiumned in addition.
Count de J<\»resta, in i"e|)Iy, said tiiat in^ totally disa])i)ro\'ed of trans-
]»ortati()n as foi-merly piaclised under the, I'higlish law. J le advocated
sending convicts un<|er lifeor lifteen or twenty year senteiH;(\s to distant
and, if ]>r)ssil»h'. iiiiiiilial)ited regions, with separation at night and <;om-
]>uIsory hiltor. When sneh cohinies ultimately refused to receive con-
vi(;ts, (as tlie Australian colonies had,) it would Im' time enough to
consider what shonhl I)e done.
TRANSPORTATION LABOR WITHOUT IMPRISONMENT. 155
Baron von lloltzendoiff thou^lit that the experience of Enalaiid was
strongly against transportation, but tbat.tbe question should be left
open to the decision of countries that believed themselves to be placed
under better conditions than England.
§3. Whether short inqnisonments and the 7ion-i)aijmcnt of fines may he
replaced by conqrulsory labor without privation of liberty. — Count de Fo-
resta, of Italy, explained to the congress a jiian for effecting the end
proposed in- the title of the present section. He pointed out the evils
attendant npou the imposing of sentences too short to admit of instruc-
tion or reformation, yet long enough to allow of the prisoner becoming
morally corrupted. He believed that these evils niight be diminished, if
not entirely removed, by substituting for imprisonment obligatory labor
during the day, leaving the condemned free to return to their families
in the evening, like ordinary laborers. Again, as regards the payment
of fines, since labor is the poor man's capital, the count urged that it
Avould be more logical lor society to re-imburse itself by means of his
labor than to fling him into a cell, where he produced nothing. He ad-
mitted that this i)lan would prove difficult in execution, but denied that
it was impracticable, and instanced many ways in which the condemned
might be employed. He thought the system could be made applicable,
especially in localities where there were large barren tracts to be re-
claimed, or roads to be constructed.
Mr. Tallack, of England, remarked that the treatment of vagrants
in that country was analogous to that proposed by Count de Foresta for
petty offenders, which he approved, and would be glad to see adojited.
It would prove beneficial to the offender himself in many instances, and
the worst portion of the community would be deterred without breaking
up homes antl ruining families.
E,ev. Mr. Collins, of England, favored the plan proposed by Count de
Foresta. He had seen the agony caused in a respectable family by its
l)rincipal member being committed to prison and branded as a jail-l3ird.
Imprisonment should be made an object of dread, by surrounding it
with disgrace and resorting to it as seklom as possible. He had long had
misgivings, as a magistrate, whether he had not helped men to become
criminals, rather than deterred them, by the imperative way in which
the law required him to substitute short imprisonments for fines. By
sending men to prison for a mere trivial offense, the feeling of shame
was broken down, whereas self-respect should be maintained.
Mr. Stevens, of Belgium, thought that practically there would be
found inconveniences in the system. Some prisoners were unaccustomed
to manual labor. Again, how could employment be found for painters,
musicians, &c. ' Work in public would lack the penal element neces-
sary in prison discipline, even for trifling offenses, and there would be
some danger in collecting a dangerous class of men together, without the
X)rivation of liberty. He preferred to shut men up and subject them to
moral influence.
Sir John Bowring considered the plan entirely feasible, if the condition
of individual offenders and the circumstances of the locality were taken
into account. In an agricultural district the men might be employed
in agriculture, while iu town they Avould be accustomed to various trades,
which might be carried on by them. He once found a locksmith iu a
solitary cell earning seven shillings a day.
Baron Mackay, of Holland, regarded the proposal as chimerical. If •
the condemned received less than his wonted compensation, the i)unish-
ment fell more heavily on his family than on himself. If, on the other
hand, he received full pay, the only change in his mode of life being
156 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
•working in one place instead of another, where would be the punish-
ment ? It would be a punishment only for those unaccustomed to man-
ual labor, to whom it would be an aggravation rather than an alleviation,
while, in such cases, mere intellectual work, if allowed, would be too
slight a punishment.
Mr. Bremner, an English magistrate, thought the imposition of fines
a very unequal punishment, and believed that, in case of inability to pay
a fine, justice demanded some other alternative than imprisonment.
Baron von Holtzendorlf would point to Prussia as a proof of the
feasibilitj" of the scheme. For twenty years there had existed a lavr
providing labor as a substitute for a tine in the case of offenses against
the forest-laws and wood-stealing.
§ 4. The proper limits of the power of boards of prison managers as re-
gards the administration of prisons. — M. Loyson, of France, said that,'
in his country, there were regularly-appointed commissioners of super-
vision, whose functions were carefully defined. Their special mission
consisted in promoting the moral and religious reformation of the con-
victs. The commissioners and the prison governors were entirely inde-
Tiendent of each other. If the former perceived anything requiring
correction, they notified the director, and, in case he refused to interfere,
they might appeal to the prefect of the department or to the minister
of the interior. Their services were entirely gratuitous, and they were
generally chos(*i from the leading inhabitants of the district. He be-
lieved that this system, as a whole, offered advantages which no other
conld, since the daily visits of local commissioners were better than the
occasional visits of inspectors.
31. Vaucher-Cremieux, of Switzerland, said that in that country the
grand council of the canton appointed a commission, which was uncon-
nected with the prison authorities and whicli might visit the prison at
their discretion. They could point out defects and suggest remedies,
but had no executive power.
Colonel Ilatcliff, of England, said that the visiting justices in each
count3^ saw that the law was properly administered, while the govern-
ment sent down an inspector yearly to examine all the details of admin-
istration.
§ 5. Whether the government of prisons should he placed in the hands of
one supreme central author itg. — Mr. Hastings, of England, thought that
the plan adopted in that country, of Iiaving the county jails entirely dis-
tinct Irom the higher grade of itrisons — the former being under the con-
trol of the lo(;al autliorities, the latter under that of the general govern-
ment— was ]»referable to a uniform system, under which all penal
institutions should be subject to one (HMitral authority. Such a system,
whih; it would undoubtedly llav(^ its ad\'antages, would be apt to become
Htereotyi»ed. J le doubted whether it could be authoritatively declared
that any one system was so far su[)erior to all others that it ought to be
enforc(Ml cvciywhere. A variety of details and an intercliange of
opinions jind experiences would probably i)ave the way for a better
system than any whi(;h (;ouid be theoretically devised.
Mr. I'loos van Anistel said that in Holland the minister of justice was
chief administrator of jnisoiis. A cliang(M)f ministry, which was not
infrefpient, always involved tli<', ]>(»ssibility of changes in |)rison manage-
ment. To secur(f ])eiiMaiien('e, he thought that a council of three or four
nu'mbers sliould act with the minister. Local boards, nominated by
the government, were (charged with the interior administration or
supervision of the i)risons in every locality.
Mr. Stevens, of Belgium, admitted that [nditical detjentralization had
CENTRAL AUTHORITY PRISON STATISTICS. 157
its advantages, but questioned whether this was the case with adminis-
trative decentralization. In Belgium, all prisons were under a uniform
system. It" a local commission suggested an improvement, it was con-
sidered by the central authority, and, if approved, was introduced in all
prisons. Punishment as well as law surely ought to be uniform.
Dr. Guillaume, of Switzerland, said that each of the twenty-five Swiss
cantons had its own legislature and administration, thus preventing any
uniformity. He believed, however, that a central authority (he would
say the minister of the interior) should have the direction of prisons,
refuges, and similar institutions having a preventive or other elfect on
crime.
Messrs. Carter and Baker, of England, warmly defended the English
isystem of local management for local prisons. County magistrates, in
their opinion, were better acquainted with the feelings of the people, and
could therefore manage the jails better than a central authority.
§ 0. Iniernational prison statistics. — Mr, Beltraui-Scalia, of Italy, said
that it was needless to show the utility of penitentiary statistics, which
alone could furnish legislators with the elements necessary for a reform
of the penal system, and which, moreover, "would furnish judges with
valuable hints in the application of punishment. He deplored the want
of success which had attended the recommendations and eftbrts put forth
in this direction by the x)risou congresses of 1858 and 1803, and by the
statistical congresses of 1857, 1860, and 1870. He thought that an interna-
tional commission ought to be appointed, comprising representatives of
the different countries, which would lay down the basis of international
prison statistics, leaving each government free to determine the form
and time of the ofidcial publications it considered useful. The statistical
congress at the Hague, in 1870, had expressed a wish that the tables be
prepared, not onlj^ in the language of the country, but also in French.
He regarded the suggestion as a good one.
Count Sollohub, of Russia, considered the suggestion of Mr. Beltrani-
Scalia with regard to an international commission not only wise, but
feasible. He felt sure no country would refuse to co-operate.
Dr. Frey, of Austria, thought that a comparison between different
countries would be attended with some diSiculty, though he hoped not
insuperable. A different percentage, under different systems might be
due to nationality, not to system. Thus, if the question arose how many
persons suffered from lunacy' under isolated and how many under congre-
gate imprisonment, the percentage of lunacy in the country should be
considered. So with regard to the rate of mortality in prisons.
Dr. Guillaume, of Switzerland, urged the importance of criminal
statistics as a guide to prison-reformers. Minute information should be
obtained of the criminal, so that the springs of crime might be ascer-
tained and dried up.
Professor Leone Levi, of England, proposed that an international com-
mission be appointed by this congress to lay down the principles of a
yearly statistical report on crime and prison discipline. Uniformity
of nomenclature of crime was indispensable in order to ascertain its
increase or decrease, ^\''hat was murdec in one country was not mur-
der in another. A system should be devised that v/ould guard against
ambiguity in this regard.
§ 7. The best means of repressinfj criminal capif-alists. — Mr. Edwin
Hill, of England, began the discussion by reading a paper on this sub-
ject. He thought that the public mind was at fault in not having, as
^et, grasped the important truth that crime on a large scale is a craft,
so far organized as to require the co-operation of labor and capital for
158 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
its successful operatiou. These " criminal capitalists ''lie divided into
four classes, viz : 1, the providers of homes for the predatory classes —
i. e., owners of real property occupied by thieves ; 2, keepers of " ilash-
houses," or establishments wherein thieves meet for purposes of carou-
sal and to plot the crimes they intend to perpetrate ; 3, booty-mongers,
or receivers of stolen property, called, in thieves' slang', " fences ;" and,
4, the inventors and manufacturers of burglarious implements. He
believed and knew that so dependent were thieves upon these four
classes of capitalists, if the supporting capital were withdrawn, thiev-
ing, as a vocation, must cease. He instanced two distressing evils
which, in such case, could not fail to be suppressed, viz, first, the birth
and nurture of children so environed by criminality as to have, practi-
cally*, no means of escape ; and, secondly, the street-corruption of honest
men's children by evil associations and the enticement to pilfer now
offered by tlie purchasers of petty pilferings. He admitted that organ-
ized criminality would cease as entirely, could the mere operative thieves
all be driven from the field, but urged that the want of success that
has so far attended the vast efforts put forth and the enormous ex-
pense incurred by society in seeking to effect this was an argument to
try the i)lan that he had suggested, which he considered much more
certain, far less expensive, and equally effectual. He pointed out what
he considered to be numerous defects in the existing English law on
this subject, and suggested changes for the purpose of, first, effectually
deterring the owners of real property from suffering it to become a
refuge for criminals; and, secondly, to render the conviction of receivers
of stolen property more easy than it now is. He also urged the Justice
of heavily mulcting all capital found aiding the operations of criminals
to defray the enormous expense of police, prisons, &c.
Mr. Serjeant Cox, of England, said that in that country ai law had
been recently passed increasing the minimum quantity which a marine-
store keeper or Junk-dealer was allowed to purchase, this class of deal-
ers being usually encouragers of petty pilfering by purchasing the
stolen bits of iron, old roi)e, and other articles purloined by children.
The effect of this law had been to materially reduce the number of such
crimes, and he believed if its i)rinciple were extended to other articles,
and shoi)-keopers were prohibited purchasiug from children under a
certain age any commodities whi(;h they were not likely to have acquired
rightfully, and restrictions were ])laccd upon the hours during which
marine-store dealers might be dealt with, very much good would proba-
])ly ensue. In tlu^ court over which he i)vesided he had made it a prin-
<iple always to give the receiver double the i)unishment inllicted on the
thief. If this rule were universally carried out, receiving would be re-
garded as a much nujre dangerous employment, and the limitation of the
number would increase tlie check we coujd keep on those that re-
mained.
Hon. .]. It. ('handler, of I'ennsylvania, stated the law in America
on this suhjcct to be that the owner of stolen property could always
com|)(!l tlie party in whose possession it was found to account for the
jnanner in which it <;aine into his i)ossession, and that a house wherein
trade in stolen goods was (;arried on could be di^alt with as a "disor-
derly house." As to that class of capilidisls who amassed wealth out
of tlie ruin of one sex, he considered hanging their merited punishment.
ColoiK^l JlatelilC, oi' Mngland, thought it impracticable to re(iuire the
inspectors of houses to close those buildings wherein known thieves
lived, lie said that it was ol'ten an a<hantage to the ]K)lice to Uno\^
CRIMINAL CAPITALISTS WHIPPING AS A PENALTY. 159
the houses in which thieves cougregateil, since it enabled them more
readily to lirid men of whom they were in search.
Mr. Aspinall, of England, thought that an incorrect impression
might be derived from Mr. Hill's statement as to the diftlciilty of con-
victing receivers under the English law, which was very much the same
as Mr. Chandler had stated to be the law of his country. It would be
an encroachment on the liberty of the subject to allow private houses
to be searched without special warrant, but all public houses were open
to police visitation at any moment. All Junk-dealers were required to
take out a license, and to enter in a book, subject to police inspection,
every transaction in metals and that sort of property which children
were tempted to steal, from the facility with which it could be turned
into mouej'. Besides which, it was not uncommon in his own city (Liv-
erpool) for the nmgistrates to punish the receiver seven times as much
as the thief. He made these statements, fearing, that strangers might
receive an exaggerated idea of the defects of the English law in this par-
ticular from Mr. Edwin Hill's paper.
§ 8. Whether tchqjping is expedient as a punishment for crime. — Mr. Pols,
of Holland, sai<l that, not out of sympathy with rufhaus, but w ith honest
people, he urged the abolition of bodily iuHictions in punishment of
crime, which he considered wholly ineiiicient as a means of social de-
fense, engendering cruelty, and being far more injurious to society,
which imi)osed it, than to the criminal, wiio sulfered it. In inflicting
punishment regard should always be had to its probable reformatory
results The criminal's moral and religious feelings should be respected
and fostered, a love of order and of labor implanted, his sense of re-
sponsibility and his power of self-restraint increased. To effect this, we
must reach the understanding, the way to which was not through the
lash. He did not believe that there were any criminals so hardened
that this faculty could not be reached through moral suasion ;
while violence bred violence, harshness engendered hatred, hardness
excited to revolt. In Holland, flogging had been prohibited in the
school and the prison, and expunged from the penal code. In each in-
stance, its abolition had resulted in a diminution of the offenses for
which, previously, it had been inflicted. In the arm}-, although not
formally abolished, it had been practically discontinued for forty years,
during which time insubordination had steadily decreased. He had no
hesitation in attributing to the abolition of corporal punishment no
small share of the happiness of Holland, and what was true of Hol-
land he believed to be true of other continental states.
Mr. Aspinall, of England, observed that apparent was not always
real philanthropy, and that, while regarding the reformatory element of
punishment, that which was deterrent should not be overlooked. He
was for resorting to corjjoral punishment where every other agency
failed. Wife and women beaters deserved the lash, and in the majority
of cases no other i:)uuishment had any effect. Could any one see the
blackened eyes, discolored flesh, and crippled forms of wretched women
and children, he would say that the monsters who produced these de-
served corporal punishment.
Colonel Eatcliff, of England, thought that there was a certain class
of men who were susceptible to no other influence. That it was effi-
cacious he maintained was proved by the fact that, immediately' after
thepassageof the act visiting garroters with corporal punishment, rob-
beries with violence were no more heard of.
Dr. Marquardsen, of Bavaria, remarked that public opinion in Eug-
160 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
land had been unduly influenced by the garrotinj^ panic, but for which
it would have kept pace with, that of the continent on this question.
§ 9. ExtradHion treaties. — Dr. Frey, of Austria, introduced this ques-
tion, maintaining that the negotiation of treaties between civilized states
for the extradition of criminals ought not to be influenced by political
considerations. There could be no doubt, he said, that the absence of
such treaties constituted a temptation to criminals, who knew tliat they
could commit a crime, and afterward enjoy immunity from arrest in a
neighboring state. Hucli treaties were, therefore, of vital importance.
No discussion followed Dr. Frey's remarks.
§ 10. Woman''s icorl- in 2J>'i-^0HS. — Mrs. Chase, of Rhode Island, opened
the discussion on this question by alluding to the eftbrts that have re-
cently been made in several of the States in her country to secure the
appointment of women on the boards of state-prison inspectors. She
said that those who urged this measure based their claim primarily on
the ground that it is the duty of women to share with men in the care,
instruction, and reformation of criminals, and that they can best do so it
empowered with the same authority. Criminal women especially need
the sympathy and society of their own sex; and the women who are
usually employed in the capacity of prison matrons are not, she thought,
generally capable of comprehending the peculiar condition of these un-
fortunates, which, on several accounts, is more deplorable than that of
criminal men. Nor, in her opinion, was the evil remedied by volunteer
visitation of prisons by women. While much may be accomplished
through this means, still a woman who feels that she is so employed by
permission only cannot fail to be greatly embarrassed ; and, if she call
attention to any abuse, her criticism is regarded as unwarrantable inter-
ference, and often leads to her exclusion. She also called attention to
the softening influence that good women might reasonably be expected
to exert over male criminals separated, in many cases, from their fami-
lies and removed from all home associations. Again, the counsels of
women in the boai-d of inspectors would be valuable in all matters per-
taining to the domestic economy of prison. As a member of the
legally-constituted board of female visitors of the Rhode Island state-
prison, she knew tliat the attention of the inspectors was maiidy given
to the men. As the chaii'man of the board of inspectors had said to her,
"-We cannot go into the women's hospital, and we know nothing about
it." This inattention, which she believed to be general throughout the
country, she attributed to three causes: flrst, the comparatively small
numbcrof women in ])rison made it seem less im])ortant that they should
be looked after; secondly, good men regani a- fallen woman as so much
worse than a fallen man that they involuntarily shrink from association
with her ; and, thirdly, the ))ublic sentiment that regards fallen women as
hopelessly lost follows them within the ])rison-walls, and the inspectors
feel that tlicy cannot hold out to them the same hopes as to men. An
inspector liad once said to lier, " AVe'don't know what to say to them."
She believed that if there was anything to say to them, if in any way
the ])atli to a life of virtue could be oixmumI to them, if the stone which
an unjust ])nl)li<; senlinuiiit had laid over the grave of their respecta-
bility could ])(', r()lle<l away, it must b(^ done by women, aiul from her
own ex])erien('e she, knew tliat, to do tliis thoionghly and well, women
must shai-(; with men the res]M)iisil)ilily and authority which guide and
eontrol these institutions.
.Miss Miiiy C;ii-penter, of lOngland, was not om; of those who desired
that woman should t;il<e the i)lace of )iian oi- do man's work, but she
wished to deline v/lnit, in her judgment, was the special work of women
EXTRADITION TREATIES WOMAn's WORK IN PRISONS. 161
ia connection with prisons. She believed that everything which con-
cerned the reformatiou of female convicts should be solely, and the re-
formation of children partly, under the care of women. Children requir-
ing reformation should be placed in homes, not in prisons ; and there
can be no true home without a mother, oi a sister, or some woman to con-
trol it. Ladies ought to conduct and manage reformatory schools for
girls. She admitted thart a majority of women were incapable of man-
aging business arrangements in a board, but thought that they might
be trained to it. It was also very important that the higher influence
of educated women, when combined with an earnest, philanthropic, and
religious spirit, should be brought to bear upon female convicts. She
was aware of the great difficulties attending the visitation of prisons by
women, but they had been triumphantly] surmounted in the convict-
prisons of Ireland, where ladies of approved position and character were
permitted to visit the inmates, each lady confining herself exclusively
to the denomination of female convicts to which she belonged. This
system had worked admirably. She agreed with Mrs. Chase that lady
visitors ought to have an official i)osition. It was, however, when a
woman had left prison that the good offices of her own sex were espe-
cially required. She would give to ladies such a part in the reformation
of convicts out of prison as was done at Golden Bridge, in Ireland, in
the institution which Sir Walter Crofton established. In that country",
where the majority were Roman Catholics, the gentleman named had
requested the nuns of the Gelden Bridge Convent to take charge of
female prisoners before their terms of sentence had expired, the institu-
tion receiving an allowance for their maintenance from the prison author-
ities. If their conduct while there is bad, they are remitted to prison ;
if good, families were found in abundance willing to take them into
their homes. So successful had this system proved, that out of the
thousands of cases that had passed through it, there had been very few
relapses. Sir Walter Crofton had, after great eftbrt, obtained i)ermis-
sion of the government to try it in England. This he had done on a
small scale, and with like success. The institution had been entirely
under the control and management of women, though of course there
had been, behind their authority, legal power to direct.
Miss Emily Faithful, of England, desired to bear her testimony to the
great value of the institution to which Miss Carpenter had referred as
having been founded by Sir AValter Crofton in England, and thought it
very desirable that such establishments should exist in every part
of the country, since it was of vital importance to a discharged female
prisoner that an opportunity of leading a better life should be afforded
her. But for families to receive these women i)romiscuously into their
homes, immediately upon their release, would be jn'oductive of more
harm than good. She deeply felt the necessity for the appointment of
lady-visitors, but thought that women should be specially trained for
this work.
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, of America, thought that, if it were well to
have female physicians in certain cases of bodily disease, it was equally
important that some of the doctors of crime should be women. She
believed that women themselves and society at large were both at fault
in this matter.
Mrs. Lewis, of England, spoke of her first visit to the large female
prison at Fulham. A lady-visitor had not been seen for mouths, and
the cheering influence produced by her visit, alike upon officials and in-
mates, was plainly perceptible. The inference that she drew was that
lady-visitors could not be too often admitted to these establishments.
H. Ex. 185 11
162 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
Mr. Brennier. of England, said that only women could approach the
better feelings of fallen women, and he thought that the non-recogni-
tion of this principle by prison managers was a grave mistake. He
believed that lady-visitors should have an official position in female
prisons, which would free them from the charge of meddlesome inter-
ference. As a proof of the inability of men to supply the place of
women in this work, he remarked that the Prisoners' Aid Society of
Manchester had failed so entirely in its work among liberated female
convicts that it had abandoned it altogether.
Eev. Mr. Crombleholme, of England, had, as a manager of an industrial
school for boys, felt the necessity of having a good woman to deal
with them. A large proportion of children born in prisons and work-
houses, or sent to work-houses, died before reaching the age of seven
years, for want of a woman's motherly care. He believed, moreover,
that it was impossible to reform women except through female agency.
He believed that an official board of lady-visitors should be attached to
every prison.
Lady Bowriug spoke of the peculiar difficulties that beset fallen
women on attempting to reform their lives, and urged the appointment
of an official board of ladies in connection with each female prison, who
might awaken a desire in their breasts to lead a better life, and might
render such an end more easily accomplished.
CHAPTER XXI.
PEEYENTIVE AND REFORMATOIIY WORK.
Eev. Charles L. Brace, secretary of the New York Children's Aid So-
ciety, introduced the discussion of this topic in a long, able, and inter-
esting pai)er on the prevention of juvenile crime in large cities. He
believed that the greatest danger to both property and life in large
cities was from the class of ignorant, neglected, and outcast youth, the
fearful increase of whose criminal precocity couhl be checked only by
organization and combination. _ The task, even under the most favorable
conditions, is one requiring great skill, judgment, and perseverance.
The first influence needed is sympath3^ The great majority of these
outcasts cannot believe that any one cares for them. This solitude is
what especially.drives a girl to despair and ruin. When these children
begin to learn that those more fortunate in life have a sincere sympathy
for them, half the danger has ])assed away; they become susceptible to
reforming iiilluences and are less exposed to temptations to vice and
crime. The, se(;ond influence indispensable to the successful prosecution
of this work is edu(;ati(»n, or school-training, Mhich inculcates habits of
steady labor, i>unctuality, and exactness, and a taste for knowledge,
besides «Mial)ling the youth to earn his bread. To make education, how-
ever, universal, it should be gratuitous and compulsory. Together with
Hchool-trainiiig naturally comes discipline, invahmble to these street-
wan<lerers, nnae(;ustome«l as they are to self-control and submission to
law. Ibit, in tea(;liing them discipline, their independence and self-help,
80 far from being clu^cked, should l»e encouraged. Industrial training,
also, should be iiii|>arted to these children. It is not desirable, however,
to attempt selfsupitorting industrial movements among them, but rather
to fit tliem for any occupation l)y tea<-hing habits of industry, licligion
is an indis]»ensal>Ie element iu any comliination of inlhiences designed
PREVENTIVE AND REFORMATORY WORK. 163
to effect a saving work among these juvenile vagrants. Nothing else can
strengthen them against the tide of evil influences in which they are
placed. Mr. Brace further mentioned, as the final and best practical
agency iu efforts in large towns for this class, the plan of "placing out,"
or emigration to country districts. This breaks up all the worst associ-
ations about these unfortunate youths, takes them from their companions
and haunts of vice, puts them where others will respect them if they
respect themselves, gives them the best of all labors for " minds dis-
eased"— labor on the soil — opens to them a chance of success and com-
petency, and places them in the most useful class in every country, the
tillers of the ground. Besides the advantages here indicated, this plan
commends itself on the score of economy, the expense of "placing out"
being a bagatelle compared to that of a public institution, such as an
alms-house, asylum, or reformatory for an equal number. It relieves
the community of paupers and future criminals, and destroys hereditary
pauperism. Mr. Brace then gave an extended account of the formation
and work of the New York Children's Aid Society, whose chief agency
he stated to be "placing out "these children in country homes in the
Western States, which has been, iu his opinion, an unmingled blessing,
and the most economical charity ever devised. The number of children
thus sent West since the formation of the society has been 22,000, of
whom comparatively few drift back to the city.
Miss Mary Carpenter, the manager and founder of the Eed Lodge
Reformatory for Girls, Bristol, England, continued the discussion by
the reading of a most valuable i^aper on " The Principles and Eesults of
the English Beformatory and Certified Industrial Schools." The system
on which these schools are conducted has been already so fully explained
in Part First of this report, that but a brief resume ot the main points in
the very interesting paper by Miss Carpenter will be attempted here.
The difference between the two classes of institutions mentioned in the
title of the paper lies in the fact that to the former may be committed
for a certain number of years children guilty of any act punishable
with not less than fourteen days' previous imprisonment, while the latter
are intended for young persons in a state of procJivity to crime. Both
classes of schools must be established by private benevolence, but must
be inspected by some one appointed by the secretary of state, and if he
certify them as fit and proper for the purpose, the state grants a fixed
sum per capita for each child sentenced to the school as long as he re-
mains an inmate. This allowance is smaller in the case of industrial
schools. A number of small institutions have been found better than a
few large central ones. In order that a home feeling may be inspired,
each school should be adapted to receive only fifty or sixty inmates ; if
any institutions contain a larger number, they are divided into several
schools, each of which occupies a separate house. In the general training,
industrial, and if possible, out-door employment occupies a prominent
part, the girls being taught such occupations as will prepare them for
domestic life. At least three hours daily are devoted to religious in-
struction and the ordinary branches of education. Sufficient time is
allowed for recreation and occasional innocent gratification. The food,
clothing, and surroundings in reformatories are such as are adapted to
working boys and girls, and conduce to their health and civilization,
without giving them undue indulgence. The results of this system Miss
Carpenter described as most encouraging. As an illustration, she men-
tioned that, of seventy girls discharged from her own reformatory during
four years, only one was reconvicted during that period, nine others
were doubtful or uukuowu, and sixty were maintaining themselves re-
164 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
spectably, six of tliem having- been well married. But independent of
any isolated facts or any statistics, Miss Carpenter stated that juvenile
crime, as it existed twenty years ago, has been absolutely annihilated.
At the outset of this reformatory work, young persons were frequently
committed who had been in prison six or eight times \ at present, cases
of even a second conviction are uncommon. So satisfactory have been
its results, that children who have passed through a reformatory are
sought for, even in preference to others, as being better prepared for
work than ordinary children. And as a final result of the reformatory
work thus described, Miss Carpenter stated that the public interest
had been awakened in these outcast children, and that it is now well
understood that, in this matter at least, sound political economy and
true Christianity are not really at variance, and the heart and con-'
science of the nation have been opened to bestow money and effort, as
well as love and sympathy, to save these young ones.
Mr. J. A. Foote, of Ohio, briefly noticed the success that had attended
the work of the Ohio Reform School, and said that reformatory work
was the romance of doing good.
Mr.Yaucher-Cremieux,of Switzerland, thought that in the reformation
of juvenile olienders the germ of crime was destroyed. He particularly
favored agricultural colonies like Mettray, where, out of four thousand
inmates, it was believed that There were scarcely a score who had not
been completely regenerated.
Mr. Hendrickson, of Wisconsin, described the school of which he is
the superintendent, which is conducted on what is known as the family
plan, and which had been remarkably successful.
Mr. Howe, superintendent of the Ohio Reform Farm School, gave an
interesting sketch of the organization, growth, and complete success of
that institution.
Mr. Bouruat, of France, said that in that country there were two
classes of reformatories, called, respectively, penitentiary and correc-
tional colonies. To the former were sent young offenders sentenced to
less than two years' im])risonment, as well as orphans under sixteen
who were judged not to have erred knowingly : to the latter were sent
those sentenced for more than two years and those guilty of insubordi-
nation in the i)enitentiary colonies. The cellular prison of La Petite
Roquette, Paris, received minors under sixteen. If their conduct in
the penitentiary was good, they were surrendered to the patronage so-
ciety for liberated juveniles of the Seine, which apprenticed them to a
trade. Tf their coiuluct gave satisfaction to their masters, they M^ere not
interfered witli; if otherwise, they were sent back to the penitentiary.
Mr. Maisliall, of I'^ngland, descril)ed the hoys' reformatory at Feltham
and that tor gills at llampstead. In the former, boys were instructed
in ])ra(;tical seamanshii>, and were often well received by captains when
apjdyiiig for ))ositions on ship-boanl on discharge. At the latter, the
inmates w«!re trained for domestic service, and situations were leadily
o])taiTMMl tor them on liberation. At both, scholastic and religious edu-
cations wei(! in)i)arted with assiduity and success.
Sir T. Fowell Buxton, of I'higland, said that in that country it was
seldom i)ossil)le to jediiei^ the averages retention of juvenile delinquents
to less than twelve or eiglili-en months. ' The facilities for "[)lai!ingout"
children, as described by Mr. Ilrace, weie not so g(>od in I'^nghuul as in
America, owing to the greiiter density of the ])o))ulation.
Mr. Bilker, ot I'vngliind, iis oneofthe i)ioneer foumleis of reformatory
schools, recounted the diHicnlties that hiid attended their foiination.
In J.sr><> Pailiament [»assed laws enabling reformatories to s[)ring u[) all
PREVENTIVE AND EEFORMATORY WORK. 165'
over the country, the result being that in four years the number of com-
mitments of juveniles had been reduced from 14,000 to 8,000.
Baron von Holtzendorff, of Prussia, said that comi^ulsory education
was one of the preventive measures adopted in (xcrmany, and that,
owing to this, such spectacles as met the eye in Loudou were never
seen in Berlin. Children under twelve were not brought before a mag-
istrate, but punished by the school-master. • Between the ages of twelve
and eighteen, they might be seut to reformatories, which were generally
under the management of private persons, aud where they might be
detained until they reached the age of twenty. He was of opinion that
the progressive treatment might be applied to juvenile delinquents.
The prevailing opinion in Germany was that it was not sufficient merely
to detain a child to the age of thirteen or fourteen at a public school,
but that there should be a complementary course to the age of eighteen,
and that boys and girls who had left school ought to be obliged to
attend evening lectures twice a week. This was thought desirable be-
cause the period he had mentioned was a very dangerous oue. Such a
complementary course was believed to be of much importance, aud
some such provision had been already made in Saxony. The subject
was now occupjing the attention of the Prussian government.
Dr. Guillaume, of Switzerland, thought education in infancy was the
best preventive of crime, a predisposition to which he believed was
sometimes hereditary. Xeglected children were not responsible for
their moral infirmities. To place such children in charitable. Christian
homes he considered better than sending them to reformatories. Since
in Switzerland a sufficient number of such families could not be found,
institutions to the number of seventy or eighty' had been established to
care for these children. They were so organized as to resemble a family
as much as possible. Xot more than 10 or 15 per cent, of the inmates
turned out badly. The rest became good citizens in after-life, marry-
ing and themselves founding new homes.
Mr. Wills, of England, had .once seen gardens allotted to fifty of the
best boys in a reformatory having two huudred inmates. The influence
of this step had been very good.
Eev. Mr. Crombleholme, of England, thought that the German prac-
tice of having the school-master, rather than the magistrate, manage chil-
dren under twelve, as described by Baron von Holtzendorff, was an
excellent one. He also favored the complemental training mentioned,
and thought that it was a short-sighted economy to allow considerations
of expense to*intluence public action in this connection.
Mr. Aspinall, of England, while estimating at its full value the good
effected through the agency of reformatory, industrial, and public schools,
and giving to the system of compulsory education its just due, still
thought that all these measures should be supplemented by efforts to
improve the homes from which the children came, and to elevate their
parents. Here, he considered, was a broad field for Christian philan-
thropy.
Sir Walter Crofton thought the general feeling of the meeting, as his
o^-n conviction certainly, was in favor of the family system.
I)r. Marquardsen, of Bavaria, Dr. Guillaume, of Switzerland, and Eev.
Mr. Coit, of Massachusetts, in reply to questions of Mrs. Meredith,
stated the practice in their several countries in regard to the illegiti-
mate children of female prisoners. In Bavaria aud Massachusetts they
beconse wards of the state, and in Switzerland were taken care of by
the local authorities.
JVIr. Ford, of England, remarked that it was a singular fact that in
166 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
England the more criminal institutions — the reformatories — had remained
stationary ten years f and these were now only sixty-four or sixty-five.
But the least criminal class of institutions — the industrial schools — had
more than doubled in number during the same period. In 1801 there
were forty-one, and fifty had been established since. Thus it appeared
that the latter were doing away with the necessity for the former.
CHAPTEE XXII.
PENITENTIARY SYSTEMS.
§ 1. The Irish convict system, as explained hy Sir Walter Crofton. — This
system first endeavors to make the criminal feel that his punishment is
not simply afflictive, but also reformatory. To stimulate him in his re-
formation the element of hope is combined with the punitive element,
and the system of classification shows him that his fate is in his own
hands. This classification is the result of a system of marks awarded
for intelligence, work, and zeal. They are not given as a reward for
mere iuteligence, for the most criminal are often intellectually brightest,
and would thus be most rewarded. The first thing aimed at is to
give the criminal a liking for work, for generally idleness led him to
crime. But work will give him no i)leasure unless he is remunerated for
it. After a certain time ])assed in a cell, when strengthened and com-
forted by the visits of the minister, he will live in common with other
prisoners. During his treatment on the collective system, the change
effected in his character can be appreciated, and he is rewarded by the
distribution of marks. He is now arbiter of his own lot, and can only
get into a higher class by diligence and zeal. Lastly, when he has given
sufficient guarantees of good conduct, he passes into an intermediate
prison, which is designed to test the work previously done, as the crucible
tests gold. These intermediate prisons, in which the prisoners enjoy
a semi-liberty, have produced excellent results. Those living in
them conduct themselves as free workmen. Penal labor in all the Irish
convict-prisons is prohiljited. This system has been proved a triumphant
success. Its reformatory results are most encouraging, a consideration
more than counter-balancing, even pe(;uniarily, the slightly increased ex-
pense which it may involve. Time, however, is required for its reform-
ing influences to operate; hence the minimum sentence has been fixed
at five years. Prisoners who gain a remission of imprisonment receive
a "ticket of license," liberating them conditionally. Escapes among
prisoners so liberated are very rare, ])articnlarly since the institution of
police siipcrvisio]), und«,'r whi(.'h system each liolder of a "ticket of
lice?is(! " is recjiiired to report liis residenee and occupation to the police
each montli. Jf sui'h a prisoner is again apprehended before the time
for wliicli lie \v;is sentenced has expiied, he is sent back to tlie ])rison
i'roni wliieli lie wah libeialed. In icply to a question, Sir "Walter stated
that prisoners, on arriving at tlie intermediate prison, Avere treatcMl with
res])e(;t and conlidenee, and that tlieir coinluct elsewhere Justified this
treatment. As an illustration ol" this ])roi)osition, ho said that in a cer-
tain prison some one of the ]>risoners was intrusted each week with the ex-
ecution of errands out side the prison; in seven years oidy one had returned
intoxicated. A ])risoner who has relapsed after passing througli the in-
termediate ])rison is not allowed to return tliei'e again. Life-sentenced
men, after ten years' cellular im])risonment witli hard labor, are impris-
IRISH, ENGLISH, AND SCOTCH PRISON SYSTEMS. 167
oued commonly in a special prison, and after twenty years their fate is
determined by the government.
§ 2, The Irish horoiujh and county prisons^ as explained hy Hon. C.
F. Bourlce and others. — The management of tliese prisons is confined to
boards of superintendence, composed each of twelve gentlemen of social
position and influence in their respective counties, chosen by the, grand
juries of the counties. At present there is little uniformity in the dis-
cipline of these prisons, but at the last session of Parliament a bill was
passed giving to the executive the power to make uniform rules and by-
laws for their management. All prisoners, juvenile and adult, male and
female, attend the prison schools daily, many of those advanced in life
learning both to read and write during* their imprisonment. A medical
officer is connected with each jail, who is required to visit each prisoner
twice a week at least, and oftener if necessary, and who has the right to
alter the diet or labor of any prisoner according- to his judgment. Each
board of superintendence is empowered to appoint, and usually did
appoint, three chaplains — one Episcopalian, one Eoman Catholic, and
one Presbyterian. The great difficulty with which the prison managers
have to contend is the number of short sentences, (very many
being for only twenty-four hours,) which rather promote crime than
check it. A majority of these sentences are inflicted on drunkards, who
are wholly undeterred tbereby. It amounts practically merely to giving
the prisoner a good bed for the night gratuitously, often au unwonted
luxury, w^hich is, in many cases, enjoyed b^' the same prisoner at inter-
vals of a week for more than one liundred times. Mr. Bourke thought
that committing magistrates should be emi^owered to pass cumulative
sentences* on such prisoners, and that more stringent enactments with
reference to the sale of ardent spirits should be incorporated in the law.
§ 3. The English convict system, as explained hy Major C. F. Du Cane. —
[The greater part of Major Du Cane's explanation, having been embodied
in his answers to the interrogatories mentioned in Part First of this report,
has been epitomized there, and need not be repeated.]
Major Du Cane defended the ticket-of-license system as practised
in England. In reply to questions propounded by members of
the congress, he stated that life-sentenced i)risoners were usually
conditionally liberated by the secretary of state after twenty years'
cellar imprisonment. He did not consider the number of recidivists
any evidence of the value of a prison system, hi 1870 more than 25
per cent, of those discharged from the English prisons had relapsed
into crime, which was an increase of a little more than 2 per cent, over
the preceding year. He said that his ideal would be to see 100 per
cent, of recidivists, since this would show that it is always the same
men who commit crime, and that the social pest was really limited and
localized. Great attention is paid to the industrial training of the con-
victs in the English prisons, 1,600 out of 2,200 apprenticed to some
mechanical trade having learned it completely. A portion of the prison-
er's earnings — not exceeding £3 — was allowed to him, the sum awarded
varying according to his industry. The convict, however, w^as not
allowed to send any portion of this money to his family ; but on his
discharge it was given to a prisoners' aid society, if he requested their
assistance and protection; otherwise, the police were requested to give it
to him in small sums. Marks are given the prisoners as a reward for
industry, and if the number earned is sufficient, they are promoted from
class to class. If any convict feels dissatisfied, he may appeal to the
governor, and from him to the director, from whose decision an appeal
lies to the secretary of state. Appeals to the director are frequent;
168 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
but if the prisoner's statement of facts is false, be is liable to a disciplin-
ary punishment.
§ 4. The English borough and county prisons, as explained by Captain
Armytage, Dr. Mouat, and others. — Captain Ariuytage, of England, gave
a detailed account of the Wakefield prison, of which he is the gov-
ernor. The majority of the inmates were sentenced to from three to
seven days' imprisonment, many of whom, discharged on Saturday, re-
turned to the prison on the following Monday. The longest term of
imprisonment in a county jail is two years for one offense. A majority
of the prisoners were misdemeanants who owed their incarceration to
intemperance. Penal labor was employed, but seldom except as a pun-
ishment for breaches of discipline. Connected with this prison is the
industrial home for discharged male prisoners, of which Mr. Browne had
made mention. The cost per head in this establishment was 76-. 2d. per
week. Some of the inmates' earnings amounted to £1 per week, their
employment being mat-making, and light work of that sort. There is
also a female home, in which the women are employed principally in
washing, and are trained for domestic service, and there is a constant
demand for them as servants. A well-assorted library is connected with
the prison, to which the inmates have access. Perfect religious equal-
ity prevails, both Eoman Catholic and Protestant chaplains being em-
ployed.
Archbishop Manning addressed the congress at length on the subject
of religious freedom in prisons, pleading that the conscience of Eoman
Catholic prisoners should be protected equally with that of Protestants.
He earnestly hoped for the passage by Parliament of an act then before
the body making the employment of Eoman Catholic chaplains compul-
sory in every county jail. He stated that no salary would be asked for
if objection were made on the ground of expense. The employment of
chaplains of his faith was now simply permitted in the county jails, and
there were one hundred and nine jails where none were employed. He
wished to see it made everywhere obligatory in this class of prisons as
it now is in the convict or government prisons.
The remarks of the archbishop elicited general approval from the
English members, Dr. Mouat observing that, if there was but one Eoman
Catholic prisoner in the prison, his receiving religions instruction accord-
ing to his faith ought to be a matter of right, and not of permission.
§ 5. The Scotch prison system, as explained by Mr. J. Alonclure. — There
is but one general prison in Scotland. No male prisoners are sent here
for terms longer than three years, those whose sentence exceeds this
being transferred, after a probationary term of nine months, to public-
works ])risons in l-^ngland. The system of discipline in the latter prisons
is identical with that i)ursued at Perth. The county jails receive pris-
oners sentenced for from twenty-four hours to nine months, although,
owing to the limited accommodation at Perth, it is sometimes found
necessary to retain in the comity and hoiough jails jirisoners sentenced
lor a longer t<M'm, in \vhi(;h case their hoard is ]>aid by the government.
(>ivil and crimiiial debtors are confined in these jails as well, and are
itllowed greiiter privileges. IMie diet varies jiecording to their sentence,
de|»eii(iing iiik>m its duration, and wiietiier wilh or withont hard labor.
Corjionil pMMislimeiit is not alhnved, ex(H'pt in the case of boys sen-
tenced for jtelty orieiises, and is even then very seldom nsed. Penal
hibor is einploye(l, A\ hicli in most, eiises is made ])r(»(lii(;tiv('. Xowhere
in Seothind do th<' ejirnings of prisoners pay for half their maintenance.
(Iratuities are given to weli-coniliictedaiid iiidnstrions prisoners on their
discharge. Convicts discharged from the i)rison at I'erth all receive a
BELGIAN, RUSSIAN, AND FRENCH PRISON SYSTEMS. 169
gratuity varying from 5s. to £i, according to their conduct and industry.
To receive the latter sum, a prisoner must have had no demerit marks
whatever. A portion of the money is given him when he leaves the
prison. The remainder is paid in fortnightly installments, on his for-
warding a certificate, signed by the police, that he is obtaining an
honest livelihood. This police supervision works admirably, protecting
those inclined to do well, and acting as a salutary check on those who
are disposed to return to vicious courses. The superintendence of all
the prisons of Scotland is confined to a central board at Edinburgh,
under the direction of the home secretary. They superintend the col-
lection of judicial and penitentiary statistics. One of their number
visits the prison at Perth twice a mouth, sees each prisoner, hears com-
plaints, and inspects the buildings, stores, &c.
§ G. The Belgian prison system, as explained hy Mr. Stevens. — The cel-
lular system is strictly enforced in nearly all the Belgian prisons. Mr.
Stevens claimed that it possesses two classes of advantages, i)ositive
and negative. Among the former he enumerated, with other benefits,
the opportunity it affords for the separate study and treatment of each
prisoner, and adapting the discipline to the situation and needs of all
the prisoners, thus securing the efficacy of the punishment. He con-
sidered a variation in the treatment of moral disease as necessary
as in that of physical disease. The cellular system also enables the
prisoner to preserve the feeling of his dignity as a man and of his
personal responsibility. The prevention of moral contagion, the sub-
duing and calming influence of solitude, and the opportunity oifered
for reflection and repentance were all, in Mr. Stevens's oi)inion, found in
the cellular system. In a word, he considered that no s^'stem attained
more directly or perfectly the various objects of punishment — repres-
sion, expiation, prevention, and reformation. As the imsoner's reform
progresses, cellular confinement becomes less and less irksome to him,
until at last he would regard removal to a congregate prison as an in-
tolerable punishment. In consequence of its repressive and reformatory
efficacy, this system, Mr. Stevens claimed, allowed a diminution of the
duration of imprisonment, thus greatly lessening expense. A want of
sufficient cellular accommodation alone has prevented the introduction
of this system into all the Belgian prisons, and this obstacle is being re-
moved as rapidly as possible. Its results in that country have abun-
dantly justified its adoption. The official returns prove that the average
number of recidivists is 4.40 per cent, of those leaving cellular prisons,
while it is G8.S0 jier cent, of those liberated from congregate prisons.
Lastly, Mr. Stevens stated the remarkable fact that in Belgium the
number of prisoners has decreased during the last six years from 7,000
to 4,000, a result which he attributed in part to the introduction of the
cellular system.
§ 7. The Russian 2)rison system, projected hut not yet reduced to practice,
as described hy Count SoUohuh. — Count Sollohub explained a complete
system of penitentiary treatment, full of novel views and original ideas.
Want of time prevented him from finishing his explanation, but he sub-
mitted a pamphlet on the subject, which was distributed to the members
of the congress. This has been translated and printed, as the reader
will have observed, in Chapter XIY, Part First, of this report.
§ 8. The French j^^'ison system, as explained hy Mr. Berenger. — Great
interest is taken at present in France in the subject of prison reform,
and the National Assembly has appointed a commission to inquire into
the condition of French prisons and suggest improvements. This com-
mission deputized Mr. Berenger to attend the congress. He said that
170 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
tbe system uow followed presented three prominent characteristics :
first, young criminals are imprisoned in reformatories ; secondly, help
is given to the man who commits a first crime ; and, thirdlj^, an attempt
is made to get rid of recidivists. It is in effecting the object last named
that the greatest difficulty is apprehended.
Being interrogated as to the state of public opinion in France as re-
gards the cellular system, Mr. Berenger said he believed it was not un-
popular. He avowed himself an advocate of that system.
§ 9. The Siciss i)rison system, as explained by Br. Guillaume. — After ^'ari-
ous experiments, public opinion in Switzerland has become definitively
settled in favor of the Crofton system. The details of its application
are contained in Part First, and will be further illustrated in Part Fourth.
§ 10. The Italian prison system, as explained by Gonnt de Foresta. —
There is at present no well-defined and uniform prison system in Italy.
A commission, however, has been appointed by the King to prepare a
code that shall attain this end. Of this commission both the Count de
Foresta and Mr. Beltrani-Scalia were members. The preference of both
these gentlemen was for the Crofton, or Irish, system; but this sentiment
was not unanimous among the commission, which has not as yet come
to any resolution. The count felt quite certain, however, that the cel-
lular system would not be adopted, since it was believed to be ill-adapted
to Italian character. At present prisoners were generally imprisoned
collectively in galleys, [bagnes ;) they are chained; but those who dis-
tinguish themselves by good conduct are placed in agricultural colonies
on the islands. ♦
§ 11. The German prison system as explained by Serr Ekert and I>r.
Yarrentrap. — llerr Ekert, director of the cellular prison of Bruchsal, in
Baden, summarized the provisons of the German x)enal code. Corporal
punishment is abolished, cellular imprisonment and conditional libera-
tion established, and police surveillance humanely conducted but firmly
maintained. Separate imprisonment in Germany, when applied to
Momen as well as to men, produced excellent results. Formerly in
Baden the maximum duration of cellular imprisonment was ten years;
the new German penal code has fixed it at only three years. Herr
Ekert avowed himself an earnest supporter of the cellular system and
concurred in all the conclusions of Mr. Stevens. In his own prison he
has seen convicts live thirteen years in separate confinement without
any inconvenience. He alleged that recidivists were very rare among
tliose who had undergone this punishment for many years, and fur-
nislied results tending to show that its infiuence on the moral and
l)hysical health of the ])risoners was very beneficial. In reply to inter-
rogatories ]\Ir. Ekert said that there were no criminal statistics in Ger-
many, lie added that all jtrisoners except 1 per cent, could endure
(;elhilar coiifin(unent for life without inconvenience.
Ilaroii von Iloltzendorff congratulated llerr Ekert on the results ob-
tained at IJruchsal, Init added iniinediately that, notwithstanding these
results, lie liiiiiself <lid not ai)[)rove of tliat system; tluit the public
opinion of Germany was o])]>osed to it, and that an executive committee
sitting at JJeilin, under onci of llie city magistrates as ])resident, had
unanimously decided to ai)ply the, cellnlar treatment incases of short
imjuisonment, and the pi'ogressive system of Sir Walter ('rottoii when
longei' sentences had to be nndergon*'.
J)r. \'arrentrapp, of J-'ranklbrt, vigoronsly eonteste<l the statement
that |iublic opinion in (Jermany liad pronounced against the cellular
system. In the. (irand Dnt.-hy (if Jiaden, at iMankfoit, in Wiirtemberg,
Jlanover, Ihi- Grand Duchy of Jlesse, and Bavaria, it had been adopted,
DUTCH, SWEDISH, AUSTRIAN, AND OTHER SYSTEMS. 171
and it was only on financial grounds that it was not more completely
applied. Bavaria had, however, already built a magnificent cellular
j)rison, which had produced excellent results. Dr. Varreutrapp consid-
ered that the new German jienal code prefers and adopts the cellular
system. His own preference therefor was, he said, supported by the
experience and study of forty years ; and he combated the attacks
made against this system, which appeared to him to have a most
rational basis.
§ 12. The Nethet'land's prison system, as explained oy Mr. Ploos van
Amstel. — In Holland the Belgian, or cellular, system is to a very con-
siderable extent in ojieration, the maximum of separate confinement
being two years. The prisoners are employed in a variety of industries,
and gratuities are allowed for diligence. As a magistrate and inspec-
tor, he had, for many years, visited the prisoners in the cellular
prison of Amsterdam, and always found their health excellent, better
even than he found it in collective prisons. He never observed bad
results, either as respects their moral or physical condition. For this
reason he supported the opinions of M. Stevens.
§ 13. The Swedish prison system, asexplainedhy M. Almqidst. — M. Alm-
quistsaid that in Sweden serious attention was given to penitentiary re-
form. Sweden in this respect had still much to accomplish and much to learn
from other countries. The cellular system is there in operation, and has
not been followed by the evil results attributed to it by its adversaries.
The prisoners enjoy better health in the cellular than in the collective
prisons, while the cases of insanity are also fewer in the former prisons.
§ 14. The Anstrian prison system, as explained hy Dr. Frey. — Dr. Frey
stated that up to the present time in Austria the collective system, pure
and simple, had been practised, without classification or separation of
any kind. At first they had thought of introducing the cellular system
as practised in Belgium, but, fearing it would interfere with the health
of the prisoners, preference had been given to the progressive system.
A maximum duration of three years' celUilar imprisonment is followed
by life in common and by classes more or less privileged. Conditional
liberation has not yet been introduced.
§ 15. Prison system of India, as explained hy Dr. Mouat and others. —
A synopsis of tlie paper read by Dr. Mouat on the Indian prison system
has been already given in Part First, Chapter XVI. Mr. Thornton and Dr.
Grey, of India, supplemented the account furnished by Dr. Mouat by
giving some interesting statistical details relative to the prisons of the
Punjaub. In other respects, however, their statements shed no new
light upon the internal operation of the system, beyond the lucid de-
scription of Dr. Mouat.
§ 16. The prison system of the United States, as explained hy Hon. Joseph
R. Chandler, General Pilshury, and others. — The representatives from
New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Maine present in the congress
described each the prisons of his own State. It was remarked that, owing
to the indei)endence of the several States of the Union of each other, a
uniform system throughout the country was impossible. The eastern
penitentiary of Pennsylvania is the only prison in the United States con-
ducted on the cellular plan. Its managers are abundantly satisfied of
the superiority of this system over that of congregate labor. General
Pilsbury and Dr. Wines deplored the influence of party politics upon the
state-prisons of ISTew York, and expressed a belief that a radical change
in the fundamental law of the State would soon render a recurrence of
the present evils impossible. A brief outline was also given of the plan
upon which it is proposed to construct and manage a new State adult
172 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIAEY CONGRESS.
reformatory at Elraira. To this prison are to be &ent young men between
the ages of sixteen and twenty-five. There would be, so to speak, three
prisons under one roof, and the prisoners would have to begin at one
and would be advanced to the others, as they earned such promotion by
good conduct. The system would be that of Sir Walter Crofton, slightly
modified.
The county jails throughout the country were represented, with few
exceptions, as indequate, in every way, for the work required of them.
This fact was freely admitted by a majority of the American delegates,
many of whom, however, expressed a hope soon to see radical reforms
instituted in their own States.
CHAPTEE XXIII.
CONCLUDING SESSION OF THE CONGRESS,
§ 1. Presentation of the worls of Edward Livingston on criminal ju-
risprudence.— Dr. Wines offered to the acceptance of the congress a set
of the complete works of Edward Livingston, in two volumes, pub-
lished in America fifty years ago. He also presented, at the same time,
for M. Verge, a member of the Institute of France, an edition of the
same work in French, recently published under the auspices of the In-
stitute. He stated that, through funds generously proffered for the
purpose, the Xational Prison Association of the United States had
then in press, and would shortly issue, a new American edition of Liv-
ingston. It was, he said, a remarkable as well as pleasing circumstance
that there should meet on that floor, and be presented to the congress,
French and American editions of a work which, though written and
published a full half century ago, had anticipated most of the great
reforms in prison discipline which the world is now slowly and labori-
ously engaged in working out. M. Verge had been called to Paris that
morning by duties which could not be postponed, but had handed to him,
together with the book, a letter addressed to the president of the con-
gress, which would be read in French, and afterward translated into
English by ]\[usurus P»ey, a delegate to the congress commissioned by
the Sublime Porte. The letter was then read as follows :
LoxDOX, July 12, 1872.
Mr. President : I have tho, honor to :isk yon to offer to the International Congress
on Prison Reform a eopy of tlie frcnch edition of the j^reat work of Livin>j;stou, one of
tlie most (eminent m(;n of tlie United States of America, and among tlie most zealous
]iione<',rs in the reform of tlie i)en:il and jtenitentiary system. Tiiis edition is preceded
liy a liiograjiiiical sketch f»f Mr. J^ivingston l)y M. iNIignet, and a critical essay by M.
Charles Lncas, a im'mber of tlie Institute of France, the friend and snccessorof Living-
ston in Ills labors in behalf of penitentiary reform, nndertaken half a centnry ago.
Livingston was a metiiber of the Institiitc, of rrance, (Academy of Moral and Political
Sciences.) lie has found in the Old World as well as the New admirers and followers,
lieccive, Mr. President, the assiuancc of my most distingnislnid sentiments.
CIIAK'LLS VKIJtir:.
McmfHV of llic Iiii^tihile.
Arclibisliop Manning, who liatl intcndtMl to oiler some remarks on tho
work tiiiis incscntcd lo the congress, but. forbore to do so lest he should
occupy time that miglit be ncM'dc*! {\)v other jmrposes, subse<juently ad-
dressed the following letter to Dr. AV'iiies:
rt YonKl'i.ACK, ./((/(/ 21, 1872.
Mv I)K.\r: Sii:: <>nr thanks are, due tr» yon in chief for the International Prison
('ongrcHH, wliich has resnlte<l not only in much valuable information, bnt in the estab-
Livingston's works and lucas's observations. 173
lishnient of a permanent union of correspondence in respect to the statistics and dis-
cipline of prisons. But for tlie initiative talven by you and by the Government of the
United Statt^s, I do not think this would have beeu attained. We have also to thank
you for Mr. Livingston's Taluable work ou reform and prison discipline. I am sorry
that it did not .arrive earlier in our proceedings. Mr. Livingston was before his time.
He has anticipated the substance of our late discussions on the separate system in his
words, " Imprisonment with seclusion and labor will diminish offenses ; imprisonment
without seclusion will increase them." I was not aware that this had beeu tried and
proved so long ago as 1791 in the United States. His book is worthy of his high name as
a just and good man. I am sorry that I had not the opportunity of expressing what I
think is due to Mr. Livingston as a forerunner in the recent amelioration of our pri.son-
discipline, which is, day by day, becoming vital to the welfare and even to the safety
of the civil society of the world.
Believe me, my dear sir, yours, very faithfully,
t HENRY E.,
Archhishoi) of Westrninntcr.
The Rev. Dr. Wines.
§ 2. Presentation to the congress of M. Charles Lucas''s ohservations on
the Penitentiary Congress of London. — lu making this preseutatiou to the
congress, Dr. Wines said that, as the observations of M. Lucas were
addressed to the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, and
would not therefore be embodied in the proceedings of the congress,
and as they lacked nothing of the value that would naturally attach to
them from the longe study, large experience, and eminent ability of tbe
writer, he would ask the indulgence of that body in offering a brief
resume of the important paper submitted by him. He said :
M.-Lucas remarks that such reunions as the congress of London are a necessary con-
sequence of the two laws of the sociability and perfectibility of man, which, in an ad-
vanced civilization, require the international exchange of ideas for the moral progress
of humanity just as they do that of material commodities for the increase of national
wealth. International congresses show the respective conditions of nations as regards
their intellectual and moral development in the same manner as international indus-
trial exhibitions do the comparative results of their economic development. Hereto-
fore there have beeu congresses of governments and congresses of peoples, but the Con-
gress of London is original and unique in that it combines both these elements. After
a rapid glance at the work of organizing the congress, M. Lucas proceeds to offer some
general considerations in relation to the subject. He says that Beccaria and Howard
were, and ought to have beeu, philanthropists, for that character was demanded of
them by the cruelties of both the criminal law and the criminal administration of their
age. But the times have happily changed since then, and with them ideas and usages
as well. Man, in the state of penal servitude-, is no longer a thing, but a moral being,
whose liberty human justice has not the right to confiscate absolutely and irrevocably,
but only within the limits required by the protection and security of social order. The
logical sequence of this view is that it is the duty of society to reform the criminal
during his temporary privation of liberty, since in this way only can the peril of his
relapse be successfully combated, and the public safety effectually maintained. The
reformation of imprisoned criminals is not, therefore, in our day, a work of philanthroi^y,
but an obligation of the state.
M. Lucas claims that the discipline of the Catholic Church furnished the model for
both the cellular and associated systems of imprisonment, since known as those of
Pennsylvania and Auburn, save that the Auburn system added corporal chastisements
to the discipline of silence, and the Pennsylvania system subtracted worship in com-
mon, to the detriment of religion, and associated exercise at the expense of humanity.
M. Lucas recalls to the memory of the academy the discussion of the 10th, 17th, and
24th of February, 1844, in which, single-handed, he contended against the three ablest
supporters of tbe Pennsylvania system in France — Messrs. Bereuger, de Tocqueville,
and de Beaumont. It was not that he was absolutely opposed to isolation by day and
night, since in his " Theory' of Imprisonment," published in 183G, he was the first to
propose the application of the cellular system to prisoners awaiting trial ; and, in the
sphere of imprisouraent after sentence, he would not wholly exclude the use of the
system, but would restrict its duration to one year. It was at the point of departure
from this limit that the controversy began between M. Lucas and his distinguished
associates, they contending for an unlimited and he for a restricted application of the
cellular system. The inadmissibility of isolation in long imprisonments he grounds
on the following considerations : Man is born sociable and ]>erfectible, and it is by
the action of his sociability that his perfection is secured. Isolation is, therefore, a de-
174 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS. '
nial of the necessary process for his perfection ; it is a violence done to bis nature
■which cannot be safely prolonged for any great length of time. Experience must in-
fallibly confirm this philosophical demonstration, since the education of any being
whatsoever is but the development of his nature. Penitentiary education must act
■with the certainty of enlightening and invigorating the intelligence of the convict,
and not by exposing him to the peril of weakening and even of destroying that essential
instrument of his regeneration. Cellular isolation, in effect, does not permit either the
initiative, the eft'ort, or the probation, "without "which there can be neither morality
nor moral reformation, (ni moralife ni moralisation.)
M. Lucas discusses in his jiamphlet the proper number of prisoners to be admitted
into any one penitentiary establishment, and arrives at the conclusion that four hun-
dred is the maximum that can be treated effectively for their reformation. He grounds
this belief on the consideration that only a moderate number of prisoners will permit
that serious personal iutlaence "which, in order to their reformation, must be exercised
upon them by the director and his co-laborers. He adds that, during his long admin-
istrative career .as inspector of French prisons, he never ceased, but always in vain, to
cry out against the agglomeration in the central prisons as creating an impossibility
of penitentiary reform, and asks whether any one can suppose that, in those immense
barracks of ten, twelve, fifteen huudred prisoners, the director can know them other-
wise than by their numbers ? AVhere is the use, he says, of talking of penitentiary re-
form^hen it is rendered impossible by such numbers of prisoners congregated in the
same prison ? In short, M. Lucas finds the following to be the esseutml conditions of
a reformatory prison discipline, namely : isolation at night, the rule of sileuce during
the day, a maximum of four huudred prisoners in any one establishment, and pro-
gressive classification.
§ 3. Propositions snhmittcd to the congress by the American delegation. —
This series of propositious was offered some days previous to the final
session, but is introduced at this point because it formed the basis, as
will be seen under the next section, of the declaration of principles em-
bodied in the final report of the executive committee and approved by
unanimous vote of the congress. The propositions are as follows :
1. The treatment of criminals by society is for the protection of society. But, since
such treatment is directed rather to the criminal than to the crime, its great object
should be his moral regeneration. Hence it should be made a primary aim of prison
discipline to reform the criminal, and not sim]ily to inflict upon him a certain amount
of vindictive suffering. Tlie best guarantee of the public security iigainst a repetition
of his crime is the re-establishnient ctf moral harmony in the soul of the criminal him-
self— his new birth to a respect for the laws.
2. In tlie moral regeneration of the criminal, hope is a more powerful agent than
fear; it should therefore be made an ever-present force in the minds of prisoners by a
well-devised and skillfully-applied system of rewards for good conduct, industry, and
attention to learning. iSuch rewards may bo a diminution of sentence, a participa-
tion in earnings, a gradiuil withdrawal of restraint, and a constant enlargement of
privilege, as these shall be severally earned by meritorious conduct. Rewards more
than punishments are essential to every good penitentiary system.
'.i. The {irogressive classification of prisoin^rs based on merit, and not on anymore arbi-
trary i»rincii)le — as crime, age, A;c. — slif)ul(l be estaldished in all prisons designed for the
treatunnit of convicted criminals. In this way the prisoner's dt'stiny during.his iucar-
ct^ration should be placed, measurably, in his own hands ; ho must be put into circura-
stancfs where he will lie able, througli Ills own exertions, to contiiuially better his
condition. A regnlate<l self-interest most be brought into play. In the prison, as in
free society, there ninst be the stimulus of some jiersonal advantage accruing from the
jirisoner's efforts, (iiviiig prisoners an interest in their industry aiul gooil conduct
tet)ds to giv<- them ben(;(icial thoughts and habits, and what no severity of punish-
ment will erilbr((5 a moderate personal interest will rciidily oljtain.
'1. In criminal trt;atnient moral forces should he relied on with as little admixture of
]>hysica] force ;is may be; organized jiersnasion, to the utmost extent ])ossi!)le, should
i)e, marh; totiike the place of coercive restraint, tlu! object being to mak(* ui>right and
indnsti ions //v7-w(7i, rather thaii orderly and obedient prisoiicrK. Jtrute foice nuiy
ni.-ike good iirison'-rs; moral training alone will make good eitizfus. To the latter of
IlieHO ends fli<^ living sonl most In-, won; to the lurnn-r only the inert, and obedii^nt
body. To compasH tiie, rel'orm.-tlion of criminals, the niililary 1yi>i' in prison manage-
ment most ])('. abandoned, and a discipline by moial forces snlislitntcil in its place,
'i'lie oltjectH of military (Iisei|iliiie and prison (liscipline, being directly ojtposed to each
othei", <;annot lie piWHiied liy the saino load. 'lins one is mc^ant to train men to act
togetlier, the other to iirepare tliem to act separatidy. The one relies upon force,
wliieli never y(!t create<! virtue; the otlnu- on motives, which are the sole agency for
attaining moral ends. The siieeial oiiject of the one is to sujijiress individual cliarac-
PEOPOSITIONS OF AMERICAN DELEGATION. 175
ter aud reduce all to component parts of a compact machine; that of the other is
to develop aud streugtheu individual character, and by instilliug right principles to
encourage aud enable it to act on these independently.
5. Nevertheless, unsuitable indulgence is as pernicious as unsuitable severity, tl^
true principle being to place the prisoner in a position of stern adversity, from which
he must work his way out by his own exertions — tliat is, by diligent labor aud a con-
stant course of voluntary self-command and self-denial. As a rule, reformation can be
attained only through a stern aud severe training. It is in a benevolent adversity,
whether in the freedom of ordinary life or the servitude of the prison, that all the
manly virtues are born and nurtured. It is easy enough for a bad man to jiut up with
a little more degradation, a little more contumely, a few more blows or harsh restric-
tions ; but to set his shoulder to the wheel, to command his temper, his appetites, his
self-iudulgent propensities, to struggle steadily out of his position — and all volun-
tarily, all from an iuward impulse, stimulated by a moral necessity — this is a harder
task, a far heavier imposition. Yet it isjust this training that a right prison discipline
must exact, and only through such training that it can succeed.
6. It is essential to a reformatory prison treatment that the self-respect of the pris-
oner should be cultivated to the utmost, aud that every eftbrt be made to give back to
him his manhood. Hence, all disciplinary punishments that inflict unnecessary paiu
or humiliation should be abolished as of evil iufluence ; and, instead, the penalty of
prison offenses should be the forfeiture of some privilege, or of a part of the progress
already made toward liberation, with or without diminished food, or a period of
stricter confinement. There is no greater mistake in the whole compass of penal dis-
cipline than its studied imposition of degradation as a part of punishment. Such
imposition destroys every better impulse aud aspiration. It crushes the weak, irri-
tates the strong, and indisposes all to submission and reform. It is trampling where
we ought to raise, and is, therefore, as unchristian in principle as it is unwise in policy.
On the other hand, no imposition would be so improving, noue so favorable to the cul-
tivation of the prisoner's self-respect, self-command, aud recovery of manhood, as the
making of every deviation from the line of right bear on present privilege or ultimate
release. Such punishments would be as the drop of water, that wears away the
granite rock, and would, without needless pain or wanton cruelty, and especially with-
out further injury to their manhood, subdue at length even the most refractory.
7. A system of prison discipline, to be truly reformatory, must gain the will of the
convict. He is to be amended, but this is impossible with his mind in a state of hos-
tility. No system can hope to succeed which does not secure this harmony of wills, so
that the prisoner shall choose for himself what his officer chooses for him. But to this
end the officer must really choose the good of the prisoner, and the prisoner must
remain in his choice long enough for virtue to become a habit, l^is consent of wills
is an essential condition of reformation, for a bad man can never be made good against
his consent. Nowhere can reformation become the rule instead of the exception, where
this choice of the same things by prison keeijers and prison inmates has not been at-
tained.
8. No prison can become a school of reform till there is, on the part of the officers, a
hearty desire and intention to accomplish this object. Where there is no prevalent
aim to this effect, there can be no general results in this directiou. Such a purpose,
however, universally entertained by prison officers, would revolutionize prison disci-
pline by changing its whole spirit ; and tit reformatory processes would follow such
change as naturally as the harvest follows the sowing. It is not so much any specific
apparatus that is needed, as it is the introduction of a really benevolent spirit into our
prison management. Once let it become the heartfelt desire and purpose of prison-
officers to reform the criminals under their care, and they will speedily become invent-
ive of the methods adapted to the work.
9. In order to the reformation of imprisoned criminals, thore must also be in the
minds of prison officers a serious conviction that they are capable of being reformed,
since no man can heartily pursue an object at war with his inward beliefs ; no man
can earnestly strive to accomplish what in his heart he despairs of accomplishiug.
Doubt is the prelude of failure ; confidence a guarantee of success. Nothing so weakeus
moral forces as unbelief; nothing imparts to them such vigor as faith. "Be it unto
thee according to thy faith," is the statement of a fundamental iiriuciple of success in
all human enterprises, especially when our work lies within the realm of mind aud
morals.
10. The task of changing bad men into good ones is not one to be confided to the
first-comers. It is a serious charge, demanding thorough preparation, entire self-devo-
tiou, a calm and cautious judgment, great firmness of purpose and steadiness oflaction,
a keen insight into the springs of human conduct, large experience, a true sympathy,
and morality above suspicion. Prison officers, therefore, need a special education for
their work, as men do for the other great callings of society. Prison administration
should be raised to the dignity of a profession. Prison officers should be organized in
a gradation of rank, responsibility, aud emolument ; so that persons enteriug the
176 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
prison service iu early life, aud foniiiug a class or profession by themselves, may he
thoroughly trained in all their duties, serving in successive positions till, according to
their merits, tested chietly by the small projjortion of re-convictions, they reach the
position of governors of the largest prisons. Thus alone can the multiplied details of
prison discipline be perfected, and uniformity in its application be attained." For only
when the administration of public punishment is made a profession will it become
scientific, uniform, and successful in the highest degree.
11. Work, education, and religion (including in this latter moral instruction) are the
three great forces to be employed in the reformation of criminals, (a) Industrial train-
ing should have a broader and higher developmeut in prisons than is now commonly
the case. Work is no less an auxiliary to virtue than it is a means of support. Steady,
active, useful labor is the basis of all reformatory discipline, (h) Education is a vital
force in the reformation of the fallen. Its tendency is to quicken thought, inspire self-
respect, incite to higher aims, open new fields of exertion, and supply a healthful sub-
stitute for low and vicious amusements, (c) Of all reformatory agencies, religion is
first in importance, because most powerful in its action upon the human heart and life.
In vain are all devices of coercion and repression, if the heart aud conscience, which
are beyond all power of external control, are left untouched.
12. Individualization is an essential principle of a reformatory prison discipline. To
insure their highest improvement prisoners must, to a certain extent, be treated per-
sonally. While they are all placed under a general law, the conduct of each should be
specially noted. The improving efi'ect of such a verification, to each, of his progress
in virtue would be great. It would be a first step toward restoriug to him that feel-
ing of self-respect, without which no recovery will ever be found permaneut. Each
should be enabled to know the light in which his conduct is viewed by those placed
over him ; for thus alone, as his good resolutions strengthen, will he be enabled to cor-
rect that wherein he may be found deficient. The statement of this principle afl^ords an
indication as to the maximum number of prisoners proper to be detained iu a peniten-
tiary establishment ; but it by no means settles that question ;. nor indeed cau such
definite and positive settlement ever be arrived at, since the question is one which must
necessarily be left to the judgment aud convenience of each individual state or com-
munity.
13. Re])eated short sentences are believed to be worse that useless, their tendency
being rather to stimulate than to repress transgression in petty offeuders. The object
here is less to punish than to save. But reformation is a work of time; and a benev-
olent regard to the criminal himself, as well as the protection of society, requires that
his sentence be long enough for reformatory processes to take effect. It is the judgment
of this congress that every penal detention should have in view, above all, the time of
the prisoner's liberjition, and that the entire discipline of a prison should he organized
mainly with a view to prevent relapses. If by a short and sharp first imprisonment it
is important to give an energetic notice so as to prevent the propagation of evil, it is
no less important afterward, by means of sentences of a longer duration, to prepare,
in a manner more sustained aud efficacious, the habitual petty transgressor for his re-
entrance into society as a reformed, industrious, and useful citizen.
14. Preventive agencies, such as general education, truant-homes, industrial schools,
children's aid societies, orphan-asylums, and the like, designed for children not yet
criminal, but in danger of becoming so, coustitutt) the true field of promise, iu which to
laljor for tlie ju'evcntiou and iliminution of crime. Here the brood may be killed in
the egg, tlie stream cut otf in the. fountain ; and whatever the cost of such agencies
may be, it will be less than the si)oliations resulting from neglect, and the expense in-
volved in arrests, trials, and imprisonments.
15. Tiie successful prosecution of crime requires tlu^ combined action of capital aud
labor, .just as other crafts do. There are two weil-dflined classes engaged in crimiual
operations, who may l)e eallecl the cajiitalists of critiK! and its operatives. It is worthy
of inquiry wlictlii-r s()ei<'ty has not made a mistakt; in its warfare upon crime, and
wliethcr it wouhl not be Ijetter and more etieetivt! to strike at the few capitalists as a
class than at the numy ojterative ])lunder(!rs one by one. Let it direct its blows against
tiio coiinecMon bi-tween criminal cai)ital and criminal labor, nor forbear its assaults till,
it lias wholly broken anil dissolved that union. We may rest assured that wlicui this
baleful (•oml)in;ition sliiill Ik- jiiereed in its vital ]tart, it will iterish ; lliat wIkmi the
<oriier-ston»j of the lei»rous fabric shall bo removed, the building itself will tum))le into
ruins.
K). More Bystematic andcomjuebensive methods should l»e adopted to save discharged
]>riHoiieiHliy providing tliem with work and encouraging theui to redeem theii' character
aud regain their lost posit ion insociety. Tlie state has not discharged its whole «lnty to
the criminal whiMi it has i>nnis!ied liim, nor (iven when it, has reformed him. Having
lifted liim up, it has Hie fnrllirr duty to aid in holding liiiu iij). In vain shall av«i have
given the convict an iuiprovril mind aud heart, in vain sliall we have inqiartcMl to him
tin- capjicity fur indnstiial lahui- and tlu; will to ailvanije liiinsclf by w<utliy ineaiis, if,
oil his disebarge, he finds tlie worhi in arms against liim, with non(» to tiust him, none
to lueut biin kindly, none to give him thi; opportunity ol' eiiiiiiiig honest bread. •
PROPOSITIONS ADOPTED BY TPIE CONGRESS. 177
17. Since personal liberty is a right as respectable as the right of property, it is the
duty of society to indemnify the citizen who has been unjustly imprisoned, on jjroof of
his innocence, whether at tlie time of his trial or after his sentence, as it indemnities
the citizen from whom it has taken his field or his house for some jHiblic use.
18. It is the conviction of this congress that one of the most effective agencies in
the repression of crime woukl be the enactment of laws for the education of all the
children of the state. Better to force education upon the people than to force them
into prison to expiate crimes of which the neglect of education and consequent ignor-
ance have been the occasion, if not the cause.
19. This congress defends as just and reasonable the principle of the responsibility
of parents for the full or partial support of their children in reformatory institutions.
The expense of such maintenance must fall on somebody, and on whom can it fall more
fitly than on the child's parent, whose neglect or vices have probably been the occa-
sion of its lapse into crime ?
20. This congress arraigns society itself- as in no slight degree accountable for the
invasion of its rights and the warfare upon its interests practised by the criminal
classes. Does society take all the steps which it easily might to change the circum-
stances in our social state that lead to crime, or, when crime has been committed, to
cure the proclivity to it generated by these circumstances ? It cannot be pretended.
Let society, then, lay the case earnestly to its conscience, and strive to amend in both
directions. Offenses, we are told by a high authority, must come, but a special woe is
denounced against those through whom they come. Let states and communities take
heed that that woe fall not upon their head.
21. The systems of criminal statistics stand in urgent need of revision and amend-
ment. The congress judges it expedient and desirable that greater uniformity should
be secured in making up the statistics in this deiiartment of the public service in dif-
ferent countries, to the end that comparisons may be the more readily made, that con-
clusions may be the more accurately drawn, and that criminal legislation may with
greater safety be based upon the conclusions so reached.
22. Prison architecture is a matter of grave importance. Prisons of every class should
be substantial structures, affording gratification by their design and material to a pure
taste, but not costly or highly ornate. The chief points to be aimed at in prison con-
struction are security, iterfect ventilation, an unfailing supply of pure water, the best
facilities for industrial labor, convenience of markets, ease of supervision, adaptation
to reformatory aims, and a rigid, though not parsimonious, economy.
23. A right application of the principles of sanitary science in the construction and
arrangement of prisons is a point of vital moment. The apparatus for heating and
ventilation should be the best that is known ; sunlight, air, and water should be afforded
according to the abundance with which nature has provided them; the dietary and
clothing should be plain but wholesome, comfortable, and in sufficient, but not extrav-
agant, quantity ; the bedsteads, beds, and beddings not costly, but decent, well-aired,
and free from vermin ; the hospital accommodations, medical stores, and surgical in-
struments should be all that humanity requires or science can supply; and all needed
means for })ersonal cleanliness should be without stint.
24. As a principle that crowns all and is essential toall,it isourconvictionthatno prison
system can be perfect, or successful to the most desirable extent, without some cen-
tral and supreme authority to sit at the helm, guiding, controlling, unifying, and vitaliz-
ing the whole. All the departments of the preventive, reformatory, and penal institui-
tions of a state should be molded into one homogeneous and effective system, its parts
mutually answering to and supporting one another, and the whole animated by the
same spirit, aiming at the same objects, and subject to the same control, yet without
loss of the advantages of concurring local organizations and of voluntary aid, wherever
such aid is attainable and may be judiciously and wisely admitted.
25. This congress is of the opinion that, both in the official administration of such
a system and in the voluntary co-operation of citizens therein, the agency of women
may be employed with good effect.
§ 4. Propositions embodied in the final report of the executive committee,
and adopted by the congress as expressing its conception of the fundamental
principles of prison discipline. — The committee, after briefly reciting the
history of the congress and setting forth the work done by it during its
ten days' sessions, thus epitomizes the longer paper of the American
delegation, and submits to the congress what in our country would be
called the draught of its platform :
Recognizing as a fundamental fact that the protection of society is the object for
which penal codes exist and the treatment of criminals is devised, the connuittee
believes that this protection is not only consistent with, but absolutely demands, the
enunciation of the principle that the moral regeneration of the prisoner should be a
H. Ex. 185 12
178 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
primary aim of prison discipline. To attain this aim, hope must always be a more
powerful agent than fear; and hope should therefore be constantly sustained in the
minds of prisoners by a system of rewards for good conduct and industry, whether in
the shajje of a dimiuHtiou of sentence, a participation in earnings, a gradual with-
drawal of restraint, or .an enlargement of privilege. A progressive classitication of
prisoners should, in the opinion of the committee, be adopted in all prisons.
In the treatment of criminals, all disciplinary punishments that indict unnecessary
pain or humiliation should be abolished, and the penalties for prison otfenses should,
so far as possible, be the diminution of ordinary comforts, the forfeiture of some priv-
ilege, or of a part of the progress made toward liberation. Moral forces and motives
should, in fact, be relied on, so far as is consistent with the due maintenance of dis-
cipline ; and physical force should be employed only in the last extremity. But in
saying this, the committee is not advocating unsuitable indulgence, which it believes
to be as pernicious as undue severity. The true principle is to place the prisoner —
who must be taught that he has sinned against society and owes reparation — in a
position of stern adversity, from which he uiust worii his way out by his own ex-
ertions. To impel a pi'isoner to this self-exertion should be the aim of a system of
prison discipline, which can never be truly reformatory unless it succeeds in gaining
the will of the convict. Prisoners do not cease to be men when they enter the prison-
walls, and they are still swayed by human motives and interests: They must, there-
fore, be dealt with as men — that is, as beings who possess moral and spiritual impulses
as well as bodily wants.
Of all reformatory agencies religion is first in importance, because it is the most
powerful in its action upon the human heart ami life. Education has also a vital
effect on moral improvement, and should constitute an integral part of any prison
system. Steady, active, and useful labor is the basis of a sound discipline, and at once
the means aud test of reformation. Work, education, and religion are consequently
the three great forces on which prison administrators should rely. But to carry out
these principles individualization becomes essential ; prisoners, like other men, must
be treated personally, and with a view to the peculiar circumstances aud meutal or-
ganization of each. The committee need not say that to carry out such views prison
■officers are re(;uired who believe in the capacity of ])risoners for reformation and enter
heartily into that work. They should, as far as possible, receive a special training for
their duties, aud should be organized in such a gradation of rank, responsibility, and
■emolument as may retain experience and efficiency in the service, and lead to the pro-
aiotion of the most deserving.
But if a sound system of prison discipline be desirable, it is no less expedient that
the prisoner on his discharge should be systematically aided to obtain employment, and
to return permanently to the ranks of honest aud productive industry. For this pur-
pose a more comprehensive system than has yet been brought to bear seems to be
desirable.
Nor can the committee omit to say that it is in the field of preventive agencies, sucli
as general education, the establislnnent of indnstrial and ragged schools, and of other
institutions designed to save children not yet crinunal, but in danger of becoming so,
that the battle against crime is in a great degree to be won. In this, as in the general
question of the reclamation of the guilty and erring, the inlluenco of women devoted to
such work is of the highest importance; and the committee rejoices that this congress
haw had the advantage of the presence and counsel of many ladies, whose practical ac-
quaintance with prisons and refin-matories has given weight to their words, and whose
example furnishes hope for the future.
Lastly, tlie connnittee is convinced that the systems of criminal statistics now in
force stand in urgent need of revision. (Jreater uniformity should be secured, and
means taken to iiisnrt; a liigher standard of accuracy and trnstvvorthiuess in this branch
of the statistics of dift'ereut countries.
Mr. ITastiiigs, of England, moved tlio adoption of the roport, and in
doinj; so <*xi)iTss<'d the* liojx' that in any international scliemc of prison
statistics uliicii miglit be devised, sjiecial care \vould be taken to insnre
the trnsf worthiness of the la(?ts reported. At ])res('nt, ho said, snch sta-
tistics arc, in a gicat ineasnn;, delnsive, because no guide is allbrded by
thcni as to the ciriMunstaiuM'S under which they were taken. Major Da
Cane has i>ointed out tiiat the nundx'r of reconvictions was but an imper-
fect test of any .system. Tlie question was, not what was the number of
reconvictions, l)ut un<h',r what circumstances did they take i)lace ? If
we had to deal witli a set of habitual olVendors, we should most prob-
ably have a high rate of reconviction, whatever the system might be;
whereas, if we have a large nund)(>r of average criminals, the i>ercent-
age of reconvictions wo;:id naturally be less.
INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY COMMISSION. 179
Governor Haiues, of the United States, said that he felfc honored by
being asked to second the motion to adopt the report. He did so with
great, pleasure. The propositions presented were comprehensive,, yet
specific; broad in their generalizations, yet sufiicieutly minute for all
practical purposes. They constituted an organic rule of action, which,
while ap])licable to all countries, was susceptible of adjustment to the
special ideas and circumstances of each. They might be termed a con-
stitutional law, to be applied and enforced by particular enactments.
He hoped that the motion to adopt the report v\'ould receive the unani-
mous vote of the congress.
Miss Carpenter said it was impossible to exaggerate the importance
of this congress and its work. It inaugurated absolutely a new era in
the history of civilization. The chairman would recollect that, when
many years ago he presided over a committee on juvenile delinquency,
it was most difficult to persuade the members of the committee and the
public that even. children ought not to be severely punished for crimes,
and their reformation was deemed quite a sec(^idary consideration. As
a witness she was asked, " Do you not consider that children who have
broken the law owe retribution to society '?" and her answer was,
" Society owes retribution to them." She was proud of that answer. Its
truth and justness have been substantially recognized by this congress.
The president. Sir John Packingtou, before putting the questioi^, begged
to remind the congress that the report before them was the unanimous re-
port of an essentially representative committee, which consisted of one del-
egate from each of the many nations represented ; the fact that, after many
days' discussion by the congress of subjects of the deepest interest, as
well as most complicated and difficult, such a committee had agreed
unanimously upon a report of great breadth and comprehensiveness,
claiming to represent the general sentiment of the congress on all the
great questions considered and debated by it. This fact he considered
one on which the body might well be congratulated as a satisfactory
termination of its proceedings. Such unanimous agreement fairly jus-
tified the conclusion that the discussions had not been in vain. A body
of men, occupying the best possible position for knowing the sentiments
of the congress, and perfectly competent to understand them, had unan-
imously reported, as embodying those sentiments, a series of proposi-
tions, enumerating great principles, which covered almost the whole
field of penitentiary science and prison discipline. It was, therefore, a
matter of satisfaction and thankfulness that the interesting debates had
not been unproductive of good result.
The motion on the adoption of the report was then put, and was
agreed to without dissent.
§ 5. Creation of a permanent international peniientlary commission. —
On the recommendation of the executive committee a permanent organ-
ization, under the above designation, was created, charged with the
duty of watching over the general interests of international prison re-
form, but more especially with that of preparing formulas for the collec-
tion of penitentiary statistics, and seeking to secure their adoption and
use in all countries. This commission is composed of the following gen-
tlemen : Dr. Wines, of the United States, president ; Mr. Beltrani-Sca-
lia, of Italy, secretary; Mr. Loyson, of France; Baron von Holtzen-
dorff, of Germany ; Count Sollohub, of Ilussia ; Mr. Hastings, of Eng-
land; Dr. Frey, of Austria; Mr. Stevens, of Belgium; Mr. Pols, of
Netherlands ; Dr. Guillaume, of Switzerland.
It is understood that the first meeting of the commission will be held
in Brnssels, Belgium, during the mouth of September, 1873.^
180 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
§ G. Dr. Wines reported from the international executive committee a
resolution of thanks to its chairman, Mr. Hastings, and moved its adop-
tion by the cong-ress. He said that the resolution had received the unani-
mous and cordial approval of the committee, whose members all recog-
nized their obligations to their chairman forthe dignity, courtesy, fairness,
and ability with which he had presi«led over their deliberations. Although
the cong'ress could not know, as his colleagues knew, the value of his^
services in the committee-room, yet he felt sure that the whole house
would concur with the members of the committee in the vote of thanks
now proposed.
Archbishop Manning, in seconding the resolution, said that their thanks
were due, not only to those who had come from all countries to the con-
gress, but also to those who, being on the spot, had labored incessantly^
not simj>ly during the last three weeks, but for a long time past, in
preparing for the congress. To them thanks were greatly due for their
unwearied industry and close application, and, he must say, for the
hai)py termination of the*congress.
A member proposed to iuchide a vote of thanks to Mr. Pears, secre-
tary of the congress.
The chairman said he could not put these resolutions to the meeting
without adding an expression of his own deep sense of the valuable and
important assistance which the congress had received from Mr. Hastings
and Mr. Pears, and his belief that, had it not been for the happy combina-
tion of zeal and ability which had distinguished their exertions, the pro-
ceedings of the congress would not have been so satisfactory as they
had been.
The resolution was carried unanimously.
§ 7. Mr. Aspinall, of England, proposed a vote of thanks to Dr. Mouat,.
for the invaluable services he had rendered the congress in translating
the many-tongued speeches which had been addressed to it. He had
never met with a man who could translate every language into every other
Avith such prom])tness, elegance, and force as Dr. Mouat, superadded to
which the doctor had the great advantage of being thoroughh' ac-
quainted with all the questions which came before the congress for dis-
cussion. He felt sure that he need only name these things to call forth
a cordial response from the nieeting.
Baron ^lackay, of Holland, in seconding the proposition of Mr. As-
pinall, took occasion also t(» njake recognition of the valuable assistance
of Sir Walter Crofton and ^fajcu' DuCane. He rei;resented a foreign legis-
lature which had not yet adoi)ted a system of prison discipline; there-
ton*, lie had listened with great attention to all proposals, atul the
arguments by which they had been supported, and he was sure that in
his country the volume of transactions, which they would owe to the
editorial care of Mr. I'ears, would be carefidly read and digested. Eng-
land an<l Ireland weie in jjossession of a system, but on the continent
that compliiiu'iit could be paid only to I»elgium. This fact showed that
the people of (»ther countries had not yet made up their minds, and was
iu itself a justification of this congress. Differences of nationality could
not a('(;ount for th<' wide discrepancies of (tpinion and experience as to
sej»arat<^ and ass(»ciate<l conrmeiiieiit.
The motion was carried without dissent.
§ K. Dr. (Juillaimic, of Switzerland, moved a resolution of thanks to
Dr. Wines. His name was the tiist w<)i<l sjxiken in the congress, and
it should be the last. The conference had begun with him, and it should
end with an ackn(»w]edgm<'nt (►f his etforts. He represented the An-
glo-Saxon race, the cham[)ioii of humanity and of all that concerned the
SUNDRY VOTES OF THANKS. 181
well-being- of the human family. That race stood foremost in the new
order of civilization which was dawning on the world, and by the arbi-
tration at Geneva it had set an example to all countries of a pacific settle-
ment of differences and the abolition of that greatest of crimes, war.
Switzerland was grateful to England and the United States for having
chosen it as the seat of that tribunal, and it Avas a good omen that Ge-
neva, the cradle of the organization for the succor of the wounded on
the battle-field, should be the scene of a great international arbitration.
The abolition of slavery in America, the Geneva arbitration, and this
great congress for the refoimation of prisoners, were gratifying tokens
of the new order of things.
Dr. Marqnardsen, on behalf of the German delegates, seconded the
motion. Before the congress met they all felt that Dr. Wines was the
heart and soul of the undertaking ; and, now that it had closed, they were
sensible that to him they had been deeply indebted for its satisfactory
progress and conduct. The German !Parliament,of which he was a mem-
ber, would shortly be engaged in framing a general law of prison dis-
fipline, and he doubted not that the law would show many traces of the
beneficial results of this congress.
Sir John Packington, in putting the resolution, testified to the im-
portant part Dr. Wines had taken in convening and carrying on the
congress. The motion was carried unanimously.
Dr. Wines said the remarks which had been made and the vote which
had been passed were more than a reward for all the toil and anxiety
which he had undergone during the three years he had devoted to pre-
paring and organizing the congress. It had in all respects surpassed
his expectations, and he assured them of his best wishes for the suc-
cessful prosecution of the great work of penitentiary reform in the
various countries whence they came, and which they so ably represented.
§ 9. Mr. Hastings, of England, proposed a vote of thanks to Sir John
Packington, the president for th<^ day. No English statesman could
more fitly have occupied that position. Prior to being called on by his
sovereign to those high othces which he had filled with so much honor
to himself and advantage to the country, he was for twenty-five years at
the head of the Worcestershire quarter-sessions, and was universally
acknowledged to be one of the ablest and most competent chairmen that
county ever had. His experience in all matters conq^ected with the ad-
ministration of the criminal law had been immense, and he had always
advocated, in and out of Parliament, im])rovements in prison discipline,
and every measure for the prevention of crime and the reformation of
the criminal.
Dr. Mouat seconded the motion, expressing hearty concurrence in all
that Mr. Hastings had said.
Mr. Hastings put the motion, and it was carried unanimously.
The president, in responding, said that he had been glad to be of any
use in promoting the success of tlie congress. He hoped that the dis-
tinguished persons who had come from other countries,and had devoted
their high character and ability to the promotion of the objects in view,
would reflect with pleasure on what they had seen and heard, and would
feel justified in thinking that the purpose of their mission had been as
much forwarded as the short duration of the congress could have war-
ranted them in expecting.
PART TPIIRD.
PAPERS SUBMITTED TO THE CONGHESS
INTEODUCTORY.
A large number of papers was ofl'ered to tbe congress in tlie form of
essays or discussions of questions connected with penitentiary science
and prison discipline. The most of these were by specialists of eminence
and ability in many different countries. A few of them were given, in
full or in part, as opening addresses on the questions discussed in the
congress, and the substance of all such is embodied in the summary of
those discussions contained in Part Second of this report. To offer even a
full analysis of all the others, however worthy they might be, (and cer-
tainly they are worthy,) would swell the present report to an unreason-
able length. It was, therefore, necessary to make a selection, and the
choice has been determined by some special novelty, either in the sub-
ject or its treatment, or by some peculiar characteristic of some other
kind, which marked the paper v\ith a special stamp. Another person
would perhaps have made a different selection, and in doing so might
have chosen more wisely ; but this was a case in which it was inipossibie
to consult the judgment of others, and the undersigned was forced to
rely upon his own, however great might be the loss thereby occasioned
to the reader. Moreover, he has felt obliged to linnt himself to a moder-
ate number of the essays submitted, and even these he will be constrained
to contleuse as much as may be without injustice to the writers.
CHAPTER XXIII.
PEISONEKS AND THEIR REFORMATION.
Mr. Z. R. Brockway, superintendent of the Detroit House of CoiTec-
tion, and oneoftlie most eminent among the prison officers of Amer-
ica, comTnuni<;ated a i>a[)er on tlie subject which forms the title to the
present (chapter.
Civilized sentiment (he sjiys in substance) concedes that the protec-
tioH of society is tlu^ msiin pnrjtos*' (tj" imprisonment ; but effective i)ro-
tection rcipiircs one of two (ri)ndivions: the, reformation of the criminal
or his eoTitinued detention. ITence relbrmation is th<' immediate object
to be sought. Uut doubt exists in many minds whether prisoners gen-
erally can be reformed, and e\'en lU'ison oflicers have little ho])e of this.
The writer, liowever, believes that criminal law may be so relbrme«l iii
its sjjirit and administration as to i)roduce a soothing and healing,
instead of an irritating and (esteriiig, etV<'(!t upon prisoners, and restore
a large projxMtion of them to society. The species of crime to which a
person is addicted depends upon the eii'-umstauces which suri'oundhim,.
PRISONERS AND THEIR REFORMATION. 183
or upon inherited tendencies, or both; but whether a man will commit
crime at all depends, to a great degree, upon his constitutional charac-
teristics.
Since the welfare of society is the true measure of every man's i)er-
sonal interest, it follows that a criminal act proves obliquity of some
kind in the perpetrator — moral imbecility, incoherent meutal develop-
ment, feebleness of will-power. Nor is this to be wondered at, since
criminals are so commonly without systematic education, by which
alone the moral, mental, and volitional powers can be rightly and
effectively trained. All who have studied criminals closely must have
observed the undeveloped, incongruous, ill-balanced state of their
higher powers, and the consequent sway of the animal instincts. Mr.
Brockway says that he has been constantly surprised at the blindness
of prisoners to the moral quality of their conduct. This undeveloped
state, this paralysis, as it were, of the moral faculties, though, no doubt,
largely due to the want of proper early education, he nevertheless be-
lieves to be often inherited from progenitors ; and he adduces very
striking statistics in support of this belief. Now, if there is a common
idiosyncracy among criminals, consisting in the activity of the grosser
and more selfish impulses, and in the imbecility or absence of the moral,
reflective, or volitional faculties, the writer asks, have we not found the
right basis of a reformatory system, whose philosophy may be stated in
the one word — cultivation f
Mr. Brockway discusses at considerable length the comparative merits
of the Philadelphia and Auburn systems of prison discipline, and, while
giving his j)reference to the latter, arrives at the conclusion that no sys-
tem of imprisonment can regularly produce reformed convicts so long
as the present or any like system of sentences prevails. He believes
that the true remedy lies in the substitution of indeterminate or reform-
atory sentences in place Of mere time-sentences. His personal experi-
ence, from recent legislation of his own State of Michigan, embodying
a partial adoption of this principle, is altogether confirmatory of its
truth and soundness, and demonstrates beyond contradiction the prac-
ticability of its application. He found that it tended to cultivate in
criminais a kindly feeling for the law and its executors; and its effect,
he argues, must necessarily be to increase for society protection from
crimiuals, either through this continued restraint or their reformation,
the latter of which objects cannot fail to be essentially aided by enlist-
ing the active co-operation of criminals in their own improvement.
Mr. Brockway lays down the postulate that any change in the char-
acter and life of criminals must be effected by one of two methods: in-
timidation or education. Eestraint by intimidation does not go to the
root of matters ; it touches only the surface, and must, therefore, be but
momentary. Reformation, therefore, cannot be through intimidation ;
it must of necessity be the result of such cultivation of the mind and
heart as is required to give the criminal knowledge and appreciation of
the beneficent design and friendly protection of law, to supply better
thoughtsandimpulses, and to invest with authoritative control the mind's
legitimate sovereign, the will. The educational effort in prisons, if made
efficient for reformation, must be broadly and thoroughly organized; it
must be such as to develop and strengthen, not only the mental, physi-
cal, and industrial faculties of the prisoner, but also his moral and relig-
ious nature.
The effectual reformation of criminals requires : 1, a graduated series
of peuitentiary establishments, embracing a phase of the separate sys-
tem, of the congregate silent system, and of the congregate social sys-
184
INTERNATIONAL PENITE^TIAKy CONGRESS.
tern; 2, centralized coutrol, with guardiau care of discharged prisouers;
3, the principle of indeterminate or reformatory sentences ; 4, indus-
trial, scholastic, and religious education and cultuie; and, o, a better
public sentiment on the whole penitentiary question and on that of the
laboring classes in general.
CHAPTEE XXIY.
CUAIULATm: PUNISH^IENTS.
A paper of high practical interest and value on this subject was con-
tributed by Messrs. Clarke Aspinall, Edward Lawrence, and S. Grey
Eathbone, on behalf of the Liverpool magistracy, England. They com-
mence by reciting two resolutions unanimously passed by the magis-
trates, January 17. 1S72, as follows : 1, that it is desirable that the cu-
mulative principle be applied to the iiunishment of all classes of crimes
and oftenses : and, 2, that it is further desirable that the visiting justices
(corresponding to our boards of jnison managers) should be empowered
to transfer well-conducted prisoners to homes for a short period prior to
the termination of their sentences. These resolutions are followed by a
table, showing the number of prisoners confined in the Liverpool
borough-prison during the first six months of the official year 1870-71,
•who had been committed fifteen times and more:
Fifteen timps iiBd i Twenty times ,ThirtT times and
under twenty. ; and under thirty. under forty.
Females
Forty times
and under fifty
Fifty times and Seventy times
under seventy, i and upward.
The authors of the paper are strongly of the opinion, in which all re-
flecting persons must concur, tliat punishments should be gradually iu-
crea.'^ed in severity, if offenses are often repeated. This opinion is based
upon two grounds, viz : fir.st, because long sentences would be more
fornii<laV)le, and therefore more deterrent to persons who had become
indifferent to short ones; and, .secondly, because such sentences would
aid persons who had become addicted to a disorderly or criminal life to
abandon it, by giving greater scope to the action of reformatory in-
fluences.
Wlien the criminal laws .shall have been amended in the direction
indicated, so that terms of imprisonment of considerable duration are
impo.scd on habitual petty tran.sgre.s.sors, it is the opinion of the writers
that the pri.son authorities should have ])ower to transfer any prisoners,
under proper limitations, to any home which is willing to receive them,
and is at the same time under the management of a certitied dis-
cliarged pri.soner.s' aid society. The advantage of such an arrange-
ment would be that well-conducted pri.soners could be selected
and jdaced in such homes for sonie time jtrior to their discharge, in a
state intermediate between the stringent restraints of the prison and
l)erfect lil)erty. In sueli a state they would have better opi)ortunities
than can be aflorded in a prison of exercising and acipiiring habits of
.*>K*lf-control, and of earning such a character as may facilitate their
CUMULATIVE PUNISHMENTS — TKEATMENT OF PRISONERS. 185
obtaining an honest living when discharged. Several homes for adult
discharged prisoners (the authors of the paper say) have been es-
tablished, and, if successful, more would no doubt be opened by volun-
tary efibrt, and the expenses of adult prisoners would not be large, if the
homes were well managed and placed in situations favorable for the
profitable carrying on of the industries in which their iuniates were oc-
cupied. The prisoners, knowing that if they did not work well, the
managers of the homes would return them to the deprivations of a
prison, would have a j^otent stimulus to real industry^ for it would of course
be one of the conditions of the transfer of a prisoner to a home that, if
he or she became idle, disorderly, or discontented, the prisoner should
be returned to prison for the remainder of the sentence. The writers
suggest that the homes should not be largely, if at all, subsidized from
public funds. Their utility will depend much on the labor in them
being of the genuine kind, which would render them to a great extent
self-supporting, and all or most of the deficiency should be raised by
the managers, as a guarantee that they are really interested in the
work. It would be far better that the growth of such homes should
be slow and gradual, as the fruit of satisfactory experience, than that
they should be prematurely forced into existence in large numbers by
such liberal public grants as have been given to reformatories and indus-
trial schools.
If the proposed amendments in the law were made, it is believed that
the following results might be hoped for :
1. That the short sentences passed on young ofitenders would become
much more deterrent, because they would be known to lead up to tbe
really long sentences, which are unquestionably much feared by nearly
all the criminal classes.
2. That under the influence of long detentions, when they became
necessary, (particularly if part of the time were passed in well-regulated
homes,) a certain proportion of the offenders would be reformed.
3. That the residuum of reckless incorrigibles would be detained in
prison under a succession of long sentences instead of a succession of
short sentences, from which the great advantage would arise that they
would have fewer opportunities of committing crimes themselves and of
training up others in bad ways, while the expense of their imprison-
ment would not be materially, if at all, increased, since the labor of
long-time prisoners can be made profitable to an extent quite impossi-
ble in the case of short-time pris6ners.
•4. That the power of the police to enforce order and decency in the
streets could be supported by the magistracy far more efficiently than
un<ier existing laws.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE TREAT^NIENT OF PRISONERS.
The right honorable Sir Walter Croftou offered a valuable paper
under the above caption. He lays down tbe proposition that the end of
punishment is twofold : amendment and example. But it is diflicult to
embrace both these requirements in a system of prison discipline. A
system of natural training from the start might amend individuals and
reconcile the public to tbeir employment on discharge; but how would
186 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
such a system prove exemplary to others? An artificial system, carried
through from the beginniug to the eud, would be an example to the
crimiually disposed ; but would such a system reform prisoners and
further their employment on their release ?
Reflecting upon these things, when called to preside over the convict-
department in Ireland, he was led to discard each of these plans as a
system complete in itself, for he felt that they would fail to attain the
object in view, but that, as component parts of one system, definite and
distinct in their several arrangements, both plans might be beneficially
employed, and the one made so to lead up to the other as to give to the
whole, in the mind of the criminal, the felt aspect of amendment. But
in order to attain amendment, you must gain the co-operation of the
criminals, to effect which they must realize that their punishment is
not merely retributive, but that it has a benevolent aim, and that this
aim is to improve them.
Long experience has enabled him to state that if this point is made
sufiiciently clear to the mind of the criminal at the commencement of
the sentence, it will not be in hostility to tbose placed over him, even in
the necessarily penal and more stringent stages of his punishment, for
he will "look to the eud," and hope will be ever present with him.
The solution of this problem, to his mind, lay in a classification which
should lead, by successive stages, from very great strictness to a state
of semi-freedom, in which the reformation of the criminal might be sat-
isfactorily tested through the absence of the artificial restraints neces-
sary in the earlier stages of detention.
To give to these stages in classification real value, it was necessary
that self-control and self-denial should be developed in the process.
To attain the object in view, the idle and ill-disciplined should become
industrious and orderly. No plan could so well effect this result as
marks, (introduced into Ireland in 1854,) or numerical records of labor.
But without associating industry in the minds of criminals with profit
and pleasure, the marks would not be gained, and the end in view would
be lost. As a general rule, it may be assumed that thecrimiual classes
dislike labor. I3ut if labor is made a privilege to be earned by its absence
in the very earliest stages of seclusion and by its gradual introduction,
coupled with other advantages as classification advances, it will by
degrees, Hloicly perhaps at first, but surely, supplant idleness in the ma-
jority of criminals.
Those conversant with the plan of convict treatment introduced into
Ireland in 18;>lr will at once ])erceive that the principles of prison train-
ing just sketched formed the basis of the system.
kSo far as the prison (lisci[)line of the system is concerned, we have,
then :
1. The stage of penal and stringent discipline.
2. The stage of asso<;iated labor, (with separate dormitories,) in
whieli, Ity means of i»rogre,ssive classification governed by marks, the
industrial improvement and self-control of the prisoner are both stimu-
lated and t^^sted l)y the motive i)o\ver which is at work, viz, improve-
ment in i)resent position and the opjiortunity of obtaining earlier libera-
tion. It will be atonee realized that thus the crin)inal, within certain
<lefined lituits, becomes the arbiter of his own fate, and the system is
depriv(ul of any aspe<;t of vengence, while it secures the co-0})eration
of the prisoner in his own iuiprovenient. It is scarci^ly necessary to
point out the self-drilling which is rcipiired )inder sui^h a system, if the
advantages held out by |)rogressive classification are to be r<'aped.
When tiiese two stages are satisfactorily i)assed — /. e., when the crim-
PREVENTIVE POLICE ORGANIZATION. 187
*
nals have attained- the required uumber of marks to entitle them to
the privilege — they are removed to a stage of serai freedom, called the
third or intermediate stage, which is a stage of probation in a more
natural state of training before liberation.
This stage of natural training in its very nature prepares the criminal
for his return to the ordinary avocations of free life, and reconciles the
I)ublic to his emijloyraent. As it has had the test of sixteen years' ex-
perience and has more than fulfilled what was expected from it, it
must be looked upon as a great success. The conduct and industry of
the inmates during this long period have equaled, and even exceeded,
those of ordinary laborers in similar positions of temptation.
Sir Walter believes the above to be the best prison training to pre-
pare a criminal for his release and his re-absorption into society. It is a
training so simple in its principles that its very simplicity formed at one
time its great stumbling-block in the minds of men, and so easy of
application that, in some form, it is suited to every locality and every
human being.
CHAPTER XX Y I.
PREVENTIVE POLICE ORGANIZATION.
Mr. Edwin Chadwick, C. B., of England presented to the congress a
paper of much ability and breadth on the question of a preventive police.
One great object (he says) of a compulsory system of public relief for the
destitute is to disarm the mendicant of his plea that, unless alm.^ be
given him, he must perish. Juvenile mendicancy leads to juvenile de-
linquency, and both are fed by indiscriminate alms-giving. English
prisons were, at one time, filled chiefly with delinquents' orphans reared
in mendicancy, who from begging advanced to stealing. Juvenile va-
grancy and juvenile mendicancy are the great seed-plot of adult habitual
criminality. Most of those who follow stealing as a business have
mainly entered their -careers as juvenile vagrants and mendicants.
After having, with the aid of able colleagues, completed a report on a
compulsory system of relief to the poor and after considerable expe-
rience in administering such a system', Mr. Chadwick became convinced
that to attain the object of the law in regard to the great evil of vagrancy
and mendicancy, as well as for other purposes, the concurrent action of
a police was necessary. But beyond the metropolis there was no force
in existence deserving the name of a police force. He therefore sug-
gested to the government the expediency of instituting an inquiry into
the subject. The result was that a royal commission was created for
that purpose, consisting of himself, Colonel Rowan, chief commissioner
of the metropolitan police, and Mr. John Shaw Lefevre, M. P. The
leading results of this inquiry were embodied in Mr. Chadwiok's paper,
and submitted for the iutormation of the congress.
The commissioners found, in the first place, that the gains of habitual
criminals, as arule, greatly exceeded those obtainable by honest industry,
being in fact, on an average, about double. In the next place, they
found that their average careers of spoliation upon the community,
without interruption by arrest and conviction, were about five years in
duration. More recently the estimate is that habitual depredators spend-
about one-third of their time in prison, and the other two-thirds at large,
188 INTERNATIOXAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
plying their craft. The duration of these long careers of uninterrupted
villainy are owing mainly to two causes: first, to the adroitness of the
criminals ; and, secondly, to the fact that the party robbed generally dis-
continues the prosecution on the restoration of the property.
Instances of the reformation of habitual thieves were unknown, and
the possibility of such reformation was not believed in by the police.
But proof was given that careers of habitual depredation had been dis-
continued because of difficulties which reduced the chances of escape
and rendered such depredation less gainful than honest industry, as, for
instance, highway robbery by mounted and armed horsemen. Evidence
was given that there were house-breakers who had returned to honest
occupations since the institution of the police, because the chances of
escape had been so far narrowed that tlie business no longer paid. But
if the chances of impunity w^ere again lengthened from months to years,
highway robbers, on foot and mounted, would re-appear, even though
the gallows and the gibbet should re appear with them. What is
wanted, therefore, to check criminality, so far as objective agencies are
concerned, is, not severe punishments, (these have little eft'ect,) but few
chances of escape, certainty of detection, short careers out of prison,
and a reduction of the profits below those of honest industry. To leave
the chances wide open, the careers long, and the profits large, and to
rely mainly on punitive agencies, would be a wisdom akin to that of
directing effort to the cure or alleviation of marsh-diseases and leaving
the marshes undrained. The whole mass of habitual depredation exists
through the defects of repressive legislation, and especially through the
's^'aut of a properly-organized and systematic pursuit by an effective
police force.
But the efficient action of a police depends upon the completeness of
its information, and this again upon the effective co-operation of the
public in supplying it. The commissioners found that the police are very
incompletely informed of the number of depredations committed. They
also found that the failure of the public to co-operate was owing in some
degree to carelessness and alow morality, but much more to : 1, a dread
of trouble and vexation arising from the cumbrous forms of penal pro-
cedure; 2, the absence of systematic public prosecution; and, 3, the
fact tliat the charges of prosecution fall mainly- on the party robbed,
and this in addition to tlie loss and annoyance caused by the depreda-
tion. It hence follows that, for the efficient action of a police and a close
and successful pursuit, a considerable reform in penal law and adminis-
tration is necessary, as well as a more general and generous public sup-
port.
The chief objective i)oints of a police are to render it difficult and
laboiious to get at pro])erty, to render it difficult and hiborious to
convert ])roi)erty when obtained, to r«;n<ler it dillicult to escai)e detec-
tion ; and in this way to narrow the cliances of escape to the depredator,
to sliorten liis career of impunity, and to reduce the profits of the career
l)e]ow those of lionest hibor. When tliese ends are attained, particu-
larl}' the last, tlie ])redatory career will be abandoned. Crime for i)rofit
lias subsisted and conlinues to subsist by the absence or inelliciency
of systematic organization, devised with a view to detect and ]»uiiishit.
The reniaiiiiiig portion of Mr. (!ha(h\ iek's ])ai)er is mainly taken up
with an account of t iif stiite of t liings in i']nglaiid and the refi>riiis needed
tluire, himI has, tlierefctic, little more than a local interest. He closes his
essay with the stateriienl tli;it the lirst report of the commissioners w\is .
directed to the elaboration of the i)rinci])les of the organization of a
j)rerentire police forcr^ and that the said report has serv«Ml very much
CKIMES OF PASSION AND OF REFLECTION. 18,9
as a text-book for some of the imperfect organizations that exist, and
that they have the material for a second report on the preventive action
of a police when organized. It is much to be hoped that their second,
report will not be long delayed.
CHATTER XXy II.
CRIMES OF PASSION AND CRIMES OF REFLECTION.
Eev. Dr. Bittinger, of the United States, submitted a paper to the-
congress treating of crime under the twofold aspect indicated by the
title which forms the subject of the present chapter. The discussion,
was one of great originality, sharp analysis, and, withal, of a highly prac-
tical cast. The undersigned cannot but regret that an essay of such
value should not have been given in full. But the respected editor of
the Transactions, whose prerogative it was to decide upon questions of
that nature, has inserted in his volume only a short abstract, and with
that the undersigned must be satisfied. Dr. Bittinger's view, as ei^it-
omized in the Transactions, is, in substance, as follows :
Sin is the primal cause" of lawlessness, but it is not amenable to hu-
man legislation until it finds expression in criminal acts. The two factors
of crime are i)assion and reflection. The passions differ both in kind
and degree : they are malign and non-malign. Eeflection differs only in
degree. Crime is punishable, because it injures society. The character
and degree of the iujuriousness of crime must determine the nature of
our penal legislation ; and the possibility of diminishing crime and re-
forming the criminal must determine the nature of our penal treatment..
The enormity of criminal acts is modified by their relation to the person
of the victim as nearer or more remote. Thus murder, rape, mayhem,
malicious mischief, arson, and robbery have a closeness of relation to
the person corresponding" to the order in which they are named, and the
same order marks the degree or intensity of guilt which attaches to the
several acts. Another distinction tO be made, which has been already
alluded to, is between crimes of passion thenjselves, namely, crimes of
malign passion, as murder, and crimes of non-malign passion, as rape.
Acts springing from malign feelings are always criminal, while those
springing from the non-malign jiassions are criminal only in their ex-
cess. The malign passions are in their nature objective, being always
aimed at the ijerson, as murder, mayhem, malicious mischief. The non-
malign passions are, in their nature, subjective, their aim being ever
the gratification of one's self, and not harm to another. The former are
personal, the latter impersonal. The punishment of crimes of passion
is aimed at the quality of the passion, as malign or non-malign. The
punishment of crimes of reflection is aimed at the degree of reflection, as
involving more or less of intelligence and purpose. Personality, as being
that which tends most to excite and intensify reflection, is, in general,
the measure of the offense as regards its guilt : larceny of detached prop-
erty, pocket-picking, burglary, robbery, rai)e. Tlie nearer the criminal
gets to the person, the darker is the crime and the sterner should be
the punishment. Crimes of passion are to crimes of reflection as 1
to 27. The most inveterate crimes of reflection are the following : Horse-
stealing, burglary, robbery, forgery; and this is the order of their fre-
quency as well as of their guilt. Of crimes of passion the orderis murder,
190 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
rape, felonious assault. Statistics sliow that grave crimes of passion do
not tend to repetition," while crimes of reflection tend strongly in that
direction. Hence, crimes of passion are few, of reflection many.
For crimes of passion, i)reventive legislation is the remedy —
1. By imi)roving the condition of the poor and degraded through
work, education, and moral instruction and culture.
2. By protecting all classes through laws against drunkenness, gamb-
ling, and prostitution.
' Crimes of reflection demand repressive and deterrent legislation — such
as a vigilant police, certain detection, and swift punishment.
The penal treatment^f both these classes should be framed on justice,
as opposed to vindictiveness. Criminals have rights which justice must
respect. The moral character of the jailor is of prime importance. The
jailor and the judge are equally the ministers of justice. The prisoner's
sense of justice must be respected by those who are charged with ad-
ministering punishment, or his punishment will neither deter nor re-
form him. In dealing with i^rofessional criminals, justice may fitly be
made to wear an aspect of severity, or at least of sternness ; in dealing
with crimes of passion, there should be a leaning toward mercy. The
victim of passion is to be i^itied ; the criminal of reflection is to be
punished. The man who does criminal acts under a sudden assault of
passion leaves room for hope, for cooler moments turn him against him-
self and move him to repentance ; the man who deliberates and plans
his crimes is comparatively hopeless, because coolness is the essence of
his criminality. The one is overtaken by crime ; the other elects it.
Criminals of passion have no accomplices, but often witnesses ; crimi-
nals of reflection have accomplices, but seldom witnesses. The former
rarely combine, and are without organization ; the latter form them-
selves into communities, and organize for crime.
These characteristic difierences between the two classes of crimi-
nals demand a corresponding diflerence in criminal legislation and penal
treatment. Ur. Bittinger in his essay explained why and wherein this
diflerence of legislation and discipline, as applied to them, consisted.
But the abstract in the Transactions ends at this point, and the under-
signed is consequently unable to follow him further.
CHAPTER XX VIII.
JOHN HOWARD — Ills LIFE AND SERVICES.
John Howard entered upon his career as a prison reformer in the year
177."{. It was therefore lit tiiat an international i)enitentiary congress,
convened in I'ingland ninety-nine years after that <late, should be made
the occasifvn of a centenary commemoration of the great English jdiilan-
thropist. r.y special recpiest, Kev. Henry W. Jiellows, D. D., of the United
Stat(;s, delivered, during the sittings of the <;ongr(^ss, a discourse on his
life, eharacfer, and services, which was a worthy tribute; to the man and
the cause. The address of Dr. liellows fills sixty i)ages of the volume of
l>rinfed Transa(!fions ; it is evident, therel'ore, that the brief extracts to
which the undersigned feels constrained to limit himself can give but a
meager i<lea of th(5 nuistei'ly analysis and glowing eloquence of the dis-
tinguished orator.
Jn one of fhe opening paragrai)lis of his discourse. Dr. Bellows thus
speaks of its subject :
JOHN Howard's life and services. 191
The u.ame of Howard has become a synonym of philanthropy. It is more widely
known, and known with more unqualified praise and honor, than any private name iu
modern history. Hundreds of associations for charity and beneficence have chosen it
for their title. It has passed out of the keeping of his own countrymen into that of
mankind. The lips of little children learn it almost next after that of their divine
Master. Its glory belongs to neither sex, but celebrates virtues and graces equally
honorable and acceptable iu both. It is one of the few names religion dares to repeat
in connection with her holiest themes. There is scarcely a shadow upon it. It min-
gles with all that is purest, noblest, most celestial in human feelings. It overleaped,
even iu the days of angry polemics, the walls of sect, and acted as a solvent of bigotry
and a cement among theological rivals and antagonists. It stands for universal
mercy, world-wide sympathy, and absolute consecration to human service. A name
for mildness, self-forgetfulness, sleepless activity in benevolent work, for interest iu
the most abandoned and repulsive of our species, for hope toward those despaired of
by all others, for chivalrous and heroic daring against enemies more perilous than
artillery, but from w'hom eveu wisdom had accounted it univei'sally permissible to
flee — pestilence aud crime ; a name for humility which fled from the echoes of its own
resonant goodness, wept at the praises it could not escape, and unaft'ectedly longed to
be unknown. What a halo hangs around these syllables! Howard! If, as he himself
declares, not one insulting word or disparaging and contemptuous act ever met his
eye or ear iu the sixteen years of his pilgrimage among the reprobate class confined iu
tlie prisons of all Europe, a hundred years, in which that name has circulated like a
household word through the homes of civilized man, have hardly produced oue jar or
discord iu the universal symi)hony of love aud praise.
In the following sentences T)r. Bellows gives us Howard's own
account of what first awakened his interest in prisoners and led him
to a visitation of prisons :
Howard says that the first circumstance Avhich excited Bim to activity in behalf of
prisoners was in observing, when sheriff of the county of Bedford, that persons
accused of crimes, but on trial foilud not guilty, or against whom prosecutors failed to
appear, after having suffered previous to trial or arraignment months of unjust im-
prisonment, were often • dragged back to jail and looked up uutil they should pay sun-
dry fees to the jailer, clerk of assize, &c. He represented the hardship to the court,
aud begged that the jailer should have a salary in place of fees. The court was moved
with tlie justice of the suggestion, but wanted a precedent for charging the county
with the expense. Howard rode into several counties in search of a pre cedent, and
his failure to find one did not prevent him from discovering the general sufteriugs of
debtors and felons iu all the prisons he visited, and ■^aked up an earuest desire to
alleviate what excited his pity aud off'euded his sense of justice.
Dr. Bellows describes the zeal, activity, minute diligence, and scrup-
ulous conscientiousness of Howard, in these words :
Howard had now become unsparing in the demands he made on his own diligence;
he gave himself barely time to attend to his inivate obligations. He regarded neither
distance, labor, nor expense in his investigations. Hundreds of miles, by post, on horse-
back, by night and by day, he hurried through England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, the
Isle of Wight, ubiciuitous", making almost superhuman haste, and yet overlooking and
forgetting nothing. A jail with one prisoner was important enough to draw him fi'e-
quently to its inspection. He took nothing on hearsay ; made no rough geueralizatiou ;
exposed himself boldly to jail-fever, small-pox, typhus, aud every personal trial to
whicH delicate sense or humane feelings can be, subjected, that he might be able- to
speak with unanswerable authority on a subject which he had perfectly exhausted.
Let us remember that this was not a time when immense accumulations of facts, exactly
observed, had taken the place which they now possess, even iu the physical sciences,
much less in the moral. Howard's hunger for facts was unexampled in his time. He an-
ticipated even scientific observers in rigor, exactness, hesitation to generalize, and patient
•waiting for an exhaustive examinatiou of the field. This was partly due to the want
in. him of a discursive understanding or tendency to generalizing ; the absence of a
lively imagination and an intuitive perception ; but still more to the scrupulous con-
scientiousness of his character, his inability to tell lies of carelessness, his plodding
patience and utter self-forgetfuluess iu the pursuit of his ends. It is hardly too much
to say, then, that every prison, bridewell, house of detention, spouging-house, in the
three kingdoms, and every apartment in each of them, aud every individual prisouer
iu every cell, had by this time been under his inciuiriug eye and had felt his influence.
The whole race of prison keepers and jail authorities, as well as all the felons, convicts,
and debtors had seen his face and felt the genuineness, the authority, and the strength
of his purpose. What other man has made his personality for so many years so directly
felt by the very persons for whose improvement and reform he was laboring ? Asso-
192 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
ciated beneticeuce, clepnteil and vicarious sacrifices for the vicious, organized corpora-
tions for charity and for reform — we all know their necessity, their advantages, and
their power. But do we not also know their limitations, their dangers, their exposures
to superficiality and perfunctory work, their tendency to become at last only costly
machines, run largely or mainlj^ for the sake of the olScers who administer them 1
John Howard was a sublime exception to the rule which trusts more to the machinery
than the power that drives it ; to the wheels, than the spirit in the wheels. His per-
sonal labors were as abundant as his public reports were few and far between ; his in-
quiries as minute, special, andparticular as they were numerous, broad, and universal.
He swept the whole field, but it was as carefully as if it had been only a single thresh-
ing-floor.
This account is given of Howard's first publication of his work ou
the State of the Prisons of England and Wales, with Preliminary Obser-
vations, and an Account of some Foreign Prisons and Hospitals :
Never was so original and costly a work — costly in the personal sacrifices and severe
labors it represented, original in being the record of one observer's personal study of
a subject hitherto treated only in the library by philosophers like Montesquieu and
Beccaria — issued with less pretension. Printed at the author's expense, in a provincial
town — and, it may almost be said, without a publisher— given away mostly by Howard
himself, it came out, without the smallest flourish of trumpets or the least aid from an
expectant public, carefully manipulated by such a skill as now ushers works of im})ort-
ance into the reading world. And it was as modest in its pretensions, restrained in
style and statement, free from rhetoric and false sentiment, as if it had been a legal
document. Howard had a perfect eye for facts. He saw them, too, in a true perspec-
tive. He hated sentimentality and romance almost as he did falsehood. He was incapa-
ble, even had he been desirous, of arranging his observations in a pictorial or dramatic
form. His work, therefore, is a plain, straightforward, condensed narrative of his ob-
servations upon the conditions of all the prisons he visited, with little generalization,
no philosophy, and few other comments than those of a plain, practical man. But the
vast accumulation of facts exhaustive of the subject is fitted to produce an efi'ect which
no abstract and no general inferences could possibly have accomplished. He really
makes his reader a fellow-traveler, and, by inspiring him with absolute confidence in
his scrupulous conscientiousness as an observer and recorder, he feels that his impres-
sions from the book are nearly or quite equal in freshness and force to those an actual
circuit of all the prisons in England and Wales, and of most in Holland, France, and
Switzerland, would have produced. ' It may almost be said to hiive been the first suc-
cessful attempt to arouse puldic opinion, independent of class or order, to a concern, on
grounds of justice and humanity, in the treatment of a large and repugnant class of
our fellow-iiien. It has become so common since, that the originality and boldness of
Howard's course are not fully appreciated. Prior to that time, the appeal of all social
reformers had been to scholars, philosophers, statesmen. Howard addressed the ordi-
nary intelligence of tradesmen and the great middle class. He did not shoot an inch
above their heads, and still less above their hearts. The narrative form <(>f his book
adapted it to its end, and nothing but its cumbrous size and cost prevented it from a
still wider circulation.
Such self-denial, sucli purity of purpose, such self-subsistent efforts as Howard's oould
not but give an apostolic cliaracter to his reputation, disarm criticism, and almost place
him and his work outside the common arena of judgment. It is not too much to say
that his personal character, as exhil)ited in his work, was itself almost a now revelation
of humanity ; and so moved and amazed England, that the suggestions and wishes of
such a working saint uec(lc,d hardly any sujiport except its own sublime simplicity and
nii])arallcle(l <lfV(>tii>n. Martyrs dying in the cause of religion tlie world had kirown,
and soon faileil to reverence. ' But saints living through labors and dangers and sacri-
fices Hindi as Howard encountered, to soften the lot of the most degraded and oi)probri-
ourt class of human beings — felons and murderers, thieves and robbers — and that with-
out regard to country, race, creed, color, and at no possible advantage to himself — at
liis own risk and cost, and without any warrant or authority but his own will : this liad
iriade an impnssidn on the English public which was uniiiue, complete, ami without
deduction. And it is no wonder lliat Howard's woik, though its circulation was neces-
sarily limited, Hhould, liy liie nid of citationH in the ])ublic press, have cnsitcd what
ca;nc, aa near uh the condilicni of England then allowed, to a universal interest.
The concliidiiig |»aragr;ipl.is of J)r. P)i'llows's address contain what
may be calFcd ;it (nice a (•(Hiii);uison and a (contrast bet\ve<'n two of the
most eniiiH'iit ;iiid iriiiaik;il)l(' iikmi of the eighteenth century, lie
HJiys :
There are two diaractcrs belonging to tin- last century who may be said in did'er-
ent way8 to have left a stronger imjiression ou the world than any other two men of
JOHN IIOWAKD S LIFE AXD SERVICES. 19d
tlwMr time, wlio were not connected with, political, scientific, economic, or literary
nlfairs; both Englishmen, both cosmopolites, and both originators of movements that
have swept over the whole face of the earth, and drawn the admiration and Hymi)athy
of anccessive generations to their respective uudertakiugs ; both men wiiose influence
continues and increases, and who have taken their places among the ]>(^rmanent orna-
ments and benefactors of their race : John Wesley and John Howard. Wesley the elder
was born in 1703 and died in 1791. Howard was born in 1726 and died 171)6, one year
only before bis great contemporary. They resembled each other even in person, both
being men of light weight, spare, under-sized, and of ascetic and self-denying habits.
15oth were men unconformed to the world, and living habitually in view of another
state of being; both intensely religious and Christian in faitli and temper; both eaten
up with a zeal for the welfare of their fellow-creatui-es ; both self-subsist<!nt and self-
relying men, so far as dependence on human sympathy is concerned. Both were men
of immense powers of work, who never spared themselves when personal sacrifices of
ease, sleep, food, society, friendship, could advance their unselfish aims. Both pos-
sessed iintlinchiug courage, and met the prejudices, passions, and perils of unpopular
<'auses, and of rude and violent classes, with the firmest, calmest, and most controlling
will. Both were equally marked by invincible convictions, a single and undeviating
aim, an indomitable resolution which success could not intoxicate nor opposition tame.
Both were practical men of great executive ability, aiming at clear and definite ends,
with clear-cut purposes, and little embarrassed by speculative misgivings, self-distrust,
or deference to others' opinions. Both relied mainly upon their own personal judg-
ment, their own personal exertions, their own self-sacrificing spirit and labors for then-
success. Both were intensely protestant in their principles and intensely papal in
their sense of infallibility — men who could only lead, not follow ; govern, not obey.
Both were wholly consecrated to their aims, above the temptations of riches and
liouoi-s ; holding jiomp, place, ostentation, ease, money, applause, in contempt, and
freely spending all they possessed or created, at the service of the needy. They both
lived on horseback, and were, iu an age of obstructed intercourse, ubiquitous — travel-
ing by night and by day, with a speed practically equal to that which even modern
facilities afford to 8elf-in<lulgent travelers ; careering through these three kingdoms,
and into the remotest parts of the islands, in a way to make themselves equally at
home in city and hamlet, among the rich and the poor.
Wesley is computed to have journeyed a quarter of a million of miles on his volim-
tary itineracy, chiefly on horseback; and Howard probably traveled in the same
way, iu a life twenty years shorter, half as far. But what he lacke<l iu miles was
made up in the varietj^ of the countries he visited, the scope of the circuits he made,
the character of the obstacles and perils he encountered, and the solitary nature of his
pursuits. Considering that his public work was confined within sixteen years, was
begun iu middle life, and ended at the natural period of human existence, he perhaps
exceeded iu the intensity of his labors aufl sacrifices, for the time he was engaged in it,
any ef|ual period in Wesley's laborious life. But Wesley began his work at twenty-aix,
and continued it to eighty-eight, with almost ecjual spirit and activity from the be-
ginning to the close — an unexampled miracle of toil and persistency.
Wesley eucouutered personal passions, hatred, scorn, violence, ignorance, and con-
tempt; was pelted with stones and garbage, with lampoons and polemic .abuse; had
knives and pistols drawn upon him ; encountered mobs and soldiery ; was in frequent
<larig(.'r of his life. Howard faced dangers more fearful to brave men : jail-fever, pest-
ilence, plague, aud the apathy of all the best portion of society. Mobs aud persecution
might have su}q)orted his courage by the anger and defiance they rouse, but he needed
no such stimulants. He was brave, without witnesses or visible enemies, without ex-
citement or organized opposition ; not braver than Wesley, for who could be? but as
brave under more depressing circumstances. Wesley's weapon was his tongue, cloven
with the dame of the Holy Spirit. With it alone he carved his way through all oppo-
sition, calnnng tumultuous mobs with its spell; subduing violent aud wicked spirits
with its divine meekness aud power, aud converting, like the fii'st apostles, thousands
in a day. And wliat his never-silent nor weary tongue did not accomplish, his ever-
active pen did— keen, plain, with less ink and more blood in it than any pen that ever
wrote so much — a pen that uttered things, not words, terse, nuornamented, wholly to
the purpose, vigorous, aud decisive. Howard had no cunning in his tongue nor in his
pen ; not a man of thought nor of words, but a man of action ; his weapon was an
eye to see, to search, to penetrate to the very bottom, to pursue into every hiding-
]dace the evil and curse that had aroused his mingled sense of justice and humanity.
He hunted down the prison wrongs of the world with the chivalric devotion of a
8i>anish knight or the spirit of Sir Lancelot in solitary pursuit of the H(dy Grail.
He collected facts Avith the zeal, the labor, and the patience of a modern Darwin, in
S(ditary explorations in distant countries whose tongues he did not sjieak, and from
the deepest dungeons, the most poisoned plague-spots, the dreariest aiul most hateful
holes, in which the moral and social fungi, whose natural history he sought, were to
be studied and described. Slow aud deliberate, cautious aud intent, he spared no
H. Ex. 185 13
194 INTERXATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
paius, ho shnuued no dangers, he h^ft nntiirued no stoiie, he hurried to no conclusion ;
he repeated his observations, examined and re-examined his facts; and then, without
art, circumlocution, rhetoric, or self-display, mainly by the aid of others, laid them
calmly before the little world who then read books, and left them to work their effects.
Wesley was an organizer of the first order. He knew how to win, how to hold, and
how to use other men. Solitary in plan and purpose, he was eminently social in
method and co-operative in means. He builded as fast as he collected materials. It
was no disembodied, uninstituted work, the diffusion of ideas as a spirit, that occupied
his formative and shaping brain. He was a churchman in every fiber, and he aimed
at visible, methodic ends — the great methodist, who swept thousands of the
ablest and most earnest souls of his generation into the ranks of his cause, or-
ganized them with an almost military drill, uuiformed them with precise opinions,
ba<lgedtheiu with similar phrases and methods, and left them a distinct corps in the
church militant, with a polity of their own, to make conquest at last of twelve millions
of people, who are destined to multiply into scores of millions before the life Wesley
gave them lias found any superseding rival or absorbent. Howard was a prophet, and
not a priest ; a prophet of action, no organiser, no founder; an impulse ; an example ;
an alarm-bell : a trumpet heard in the night. He was a sort of John the Baptist, his meat
locusts and wild honey, crying in the wilderness, repent, repent. Solitary, difficult
to work with, and wholly lonely in labors and in aims, he built up no work, he laid
the foundations of no scheme, he became the architect of no system. But he drew the
attention of the world and fastened it upon the cruelties, the inefficiency, and the in-
humane and unchristian character of the dark prison territory. Nay, by his exalted
devotion, the noiseless enthusiasm of his labors, the purity and intensity of his zeal,
his absolute, uncalculating humanity, he made his name not only a landmark but an
inextinguishable voice, which has ever since sounded through tbe nations, demand-
ing attention to prisoners' rights and claims. He who can thus gild bis own name with
mercy and truth, until it shines over all lands with the glory of an nusetting constel-
lation, who can turn its very letters and syllables into a universal language, until it
becomes a spell, a synonym for humanity, a rally for the prisoner's relief, has joined
the small company o£ the immortals in human history, and is among the saints, apostles.
martyrs, who stand nearest to the Head of the glorious company in heaven.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE PRISON OF GHENT.
M. xVuouste Visscbers, a jurist and pliilanthropist of great distiuctioii
aud ability, wa.s one of live comniis.sioners named by tbe government to
represent Jielgiuni in tlie congress of London. Forbidden by bis pbysi-
cian, on account of tbe state of bis bealtb, to leave bome at tbe time of
tbe meeting of tiie congress, be communicated in print a paper entitled,
"Notice relating to tbe construction of tbe i)rison of Ghent, decreed by
the States of Flanders in 1771, and to the two memoirs drawn up by tbe
Viscount J. P. Vilain XIV, on tbe subject of tbe establishment of the
said ' prison in 1771-1775, followed by some considerations on the
l)rogress and development of tbe ])enitentiary system." No more inter-
esting or instructive paper was olfi'rcd to the congress, yet, by some
unaccountable ov<'rsight — for certaiidy there could have been no sucb
design — it does not appear, nor is any allnsion made to it, in tbe volume
of Transactions IssiumI l)y order of the ixnly and cditcil by its secretary,
I'Mwin iN'ars, «'S(|., under tin; supervision of an I'higlisli committee ap-
pointed for that purpose. For this icason, and beeausi^ of tlu^ exceed-
ingly inteicsting e,haraet<-r of tiie information (>lfered by I\I. V'issehers
in liis hist«uieal e.ssiiy, information so honorable to his country and to
oiH^ of its eminent citizens, tin*, undi-rsigned has deemed it lit and desir-
able, to give in the present chapter a somewhat extended sunimary of
its ("ontents.
."M. X'issclicrs ilivides his paper into scacu seel ions, or, as he names
tliem, cliaptcrs, each trc.itiii;', of a spccia! department ol' his subject.
THE PRISON OF GHENT. 195
The first section treats of the state of society in the Belgian provinces,
near the middle of the eighteenth century, and of the imperfection of
its repressive hiws. The author says that at this time the whole of
Europe was desolated by the scourge of innumerable mendicants and
vagrants, a scourge which the laws and customs rather encouraged
than repressed. That enlightened and able Empress, Maria Theresa,
moved by this state of things, sought to introduce remedial measures
more eflective than those previously employed, A letter of Prince
Charles of Lorrain, governor-general of the Austrian low countries,
dated August 2, 1705, called the attention of the privy council to the
abuses existing in the administr.ition of criminal justice, and particularly
to the iuefficacy of the punishments of whipping, branding, and banish-
ment for the repression of crimes. M. de Eierlant resumed the discus-
sion of these questions in the session of the privy council of April 13,
1771. He denounced infamous and torturing punishments, and advo-
cated, instead, the immediate establishment of houses of correction, de-
claring that people without honor could not be restrained by the fear of
infamy ; that neither the scaflbld, nor the scourge, nor the branding-
iron could ever put an end to disorders which had their source in a dis-
like of work, and that the only means of correcting the indolent and
the idle was to compel them to labor. M. Visschers cites two state papers
of the Empress Maria Theresa, honorable alike to her intelligence and
her humanity, in which she recommends the gradual abolishment of
capital punishment, except in cases of atrocious crime, and the estab-
lishment of correctional prisons to take the place of these punishments.
He mentions also another letter of Prince Charles of Lorraine, under
date of May 11, 1772, pressing the work of building the prison at Ghent,
agreeably to the plan of the Viscount Vilain, with separate cells for each
prisoner, that it might serve as a model and an incitement to the other
provinces.
The second section touches briefly on the principal events in the life,
as well as on the more important writings, of the founder of the house
of correction of Ghent, the Viscount J. P. Vilain. Born at Ghent in the
year 1712, this great man passed through all the gradations of public
honor and responsibility in his native country, ever showing himself
able, wise, and faithful, and closed a career, at once useful and illus-
trious, in 1777, at the age of sixty-five years. His works were chiefly
memoirs or essays on finance, economics, and penitentiary science, all of
a practical character, all marked by broad common sense and a keen in-
sight, and all intended to promote the highest interest and welfare of
the state.
Section third enters into the heart of the subject, giving a most inter-
esting resume of the two memoirs of the Viscount Vilain, in 1771 and
1775, for the construction and internal arrangement of the house of cor-
rection. The first presents the basis on which the new establishment
was to be founded. The second is mainly taken up with setting forth
the rules and regulations of the house. In the former the viscount
maintains that mendicity and vagrancy are encouraged and fostered by
the hospitals and alms-houses intended for their relief and prevention,
and that they form the seed-plot and nursery of theft and robbery. Of
61,081 j)aupers then found in Flanders, exclusive of the cities, fully one-
half were able-bodied mendicants, imposters, vagabonds, wandering from
village to village and committing all sorts of spoliations upon the honest
peoi»le of the country. He says that for such offenses there were no pun-
ishments between fines and tortures, and asks why it would not be bet-
ter to make of these sturdy beggers workmen useful to the public before
196 INTERNATIONAL PP:NITENTIARY CONGRESS.
they became criminals. He then examines the question of cost, and
concliules that the proposed house of correction would be an economic
measure as compaied with the expenses of justice and the losses occa-
sioned by the spoliators.
The proposition received the assent of the states of Flanders and of
the Empress Maria Theresa. It was determined, according to the
recommendations of the viscount's report, that there should be a sepa-
rate \Yard for able-bodied mendicants, a second for women, a third for
laborers oirt of employment who desired work, and a fourth for the
children of paupers. It was ordained, not only that there should be a
separate establishnient for each of these classes, but that each indi-
vidual should be confined separately at night. The first three wards,
radiating from a common center, were erected in the year 1772-1773,
and provisional regulations for the discipline were decreed in February,
1773; but the general opening did not take place till May, 1775.
After two years' experience the Viscount Vilain presented to the states
his second memoir, in 1775. The first was intended to i)repare for the
creation of the establishment, the second to consolidate it. In it he
remarks that the punishments inflicted on the bandits who caused the
honest laborer to tremble — exile, whipping, branding — effected no im-
provement in them, and were a remedy lor nothing. The offenders
rather grew worse. He believed it would be preferable to change these
jmnishmeuts to correctional imprisonment. There was, however, a
]>eril to which the new experiment was exposed, that might prove
disastrous; it was that of having too great a number at the beginning.
Provision was made against this danger by the resolution to receive
only a limited number, and to increase it when the first comers should
be relbrmed and inured to labor.
The fourth section describes the plan and interior division of the
house of correction of Ghent. The general plan was that of wings
radiating from oiie center, five of wliich were completed in 1775 and
the renuiining three not until 1827. The first wing on the left, as you
enter, was alone at that time used as a prison for criminals. The
secoiul was occuj^ied by able-bodied beggars, misdemeanants, and dis-
orderly persons. Tiie third was aj)i)r()]>rialed to girls and women. The
other two were destined to the reception of i)ersons in want of work
and to the children of paupers received on fouiulations or scholarships.
Each wing had four stories, with stairs and the necessary private
entrances. The whole structure was surrounded by an inclosing wall.
Each ])risom'r was confined in a separate (!ell at night. The crinunals'
wing liad two liiiiuired and eighty-four cells, eacli seven feet long and
five and a hall' wich'. They weie all of the same form and ])ro])ortions,
and ail])rovided with the same fuinilurc, viz: a bed six and a half feet
long and two and a half i'cvt wide, a ])ailliisse, a mattress, a i)illow, a
])air of sheets, and two blaid^cts in winter and oiu'- in sunuuer. They
wer<! also ])i<)\id('<l with a vessel, a small bench, a hinge-table, and a
closet in which tli<^ juisoners kept their criccts. The grouiul-lloor was
occupied i»artly by the work-sliojts and partly by dark cells for the
])unishnient of faults against discipline.
On the first story was the kit<;hen, with its adjuncts. The lefectory,
wliich was (H)ntiguous to it, was one huiulred an<l twenty feet long and
twenty-six feet wide; eighteen tables might be spread in it, with twenty
covers each.
in the, chajtel iKljoiiiiiig llic icCectoi'v nmis celebrjitcd, Sundays and
fe;isl(lays, di\ ine scixiee, ;it which all llie pi isoneis were re(iuire<l to
THE PRISON OF GHENT. 197
be present, as well as at tbe sermon, and at daily prayers morning and
evening.
The second structnre, designed for able-bodied beggars and prisoners
sentenced for minor offenses, was built and arranged in tbe same man-
ner, with separate cells for two hundred and tifty.
The third wing, appropriated to young girls and women, was of the
same dimensions, containing eight large apartments twenty-two by
sixteen feet, and forty smaller ones, ten and a half feet in# length by
eight and three-quarters in breadth. The refectory for the women was
of tlie same proportions as that for the criminal men.
Tlie tvA^o remaining wings, and the three still to be constructed in
order to complete the octagon, had a destination which attested the
breadth of the views which presided over the conception of the plan.
For the realization of the end proposed, it was expected that there would
be a foundation of four hundred to five hundred scholarships, yielding
annually GO llorijis each. Already the states of Flanders had resolved
to contribute to this foundation by establishing twenty scholarships. It
was proposed to establish in the house of correction schools for the
children of the poor and for apprentices in general, who, for want of
sufficient means, were unable to acquire the knowledge of trades.
The broad views and large-hearted humanity of tlie Viscount Vilain
are shown in his declaration that " this establishment ought to be looked
upon by the public as a school or nursery of arts and trades for the re-
lief of the really poor, who, deprived of resources sufficient to supi)ort
their children, are, obliged to let them languish in idleness and to make
of them beggars, who, as a consequence, become onerous to the public
and useless to the state,"
To encourage this plan, the Empress decreed "that those who shall
become most capable as workmen, shall be received into the trade-cor-
porations of the towns of Flanders which they shall find convenient to
their locality, without charges- of any kind, and without being subjected
to years of apprenticeship, but only to the x>roduction of a trial-piece,
and that, in addition, they shall enjoy the rights of citizenship {bourge-
oisie) without expense or formalities, in the towns where they shall be-
come members of the trade-corporations,'''
The author of the memoir i)laced his supreme reliance upon this mode
of encouraging labor ; he sought to prevent crime by combating idle-
ness. Private citizens had already announced their intention to found
scholarships for the benefit of prisoners of this establishment ; and, with
a view to insure its success, the great Queen Empress had exhorted the
bishops, the abbots, the spiritual corporations — in a word, all her sub-
jects— to lend their aid in a project so excellent and useful.
In the fifth section M. Yisschers treats of the administration of the
prison, its discipline, and the management of its industries. The ad-
ministration was confided, under the general direction of the states of
Flanders and the special protection of the Empress, to a college of gov-
ernors, composed of three deputies of the assembly of the states, one
jurist, two notables, and four merchants. The Viscount Vilain was
made a member of the college. The police and discipline of the estab-
lishment, and the reception, lodging, and conduct of the prisoners, were
directed by officers who had under their orders various agents, and
were themselves subject to the instructions of the dei)uties of the prov-
ince. The management of the industries was confided to a director of
manufactures, who had under him a number of foremen, and was him-
self guided by the rules and resolutions of the college of governors. An
accountant kept the books. A surgeon was attached to the house. A
198 *^ INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
cbaplaiu bad Lis residence iu the establisluiient. Tbe Viscount Vilaia
says in his memoir : " Eeligiou is not neglected in the prison ; it is even
made one of tbe objects of attention, and is never lost sight of. The change
of manner, the quietness and submission of the prisoners, and their ex-
emplary observance of tbe duties of piety assure us of the impression
which has been nuide on the minds of many by pious exhortations and
the word of God.''
No priscyier was received except upou previous notice, given at least
forty-eight hours in advance, and on tbe production of an authentic
copy of tbe sentence of tbe judge or of the decree of commutation of
afflictive punishments to imprisonment. At first no convict was ad-
mitted who was not able to work and to learn a trade.
Tbe viscount gives formulas for keeping tbe registers relating to tbe
general state of the prisoners, the trades at which they worked, and the
product of their labor. A special register shoiced the amount helonfjivg to
each 2)rhoner of his share of his earnings. Instructions, are set down for
the management of tlie hospital and tbe care to be given to the sick.
A regulation of the 20th March, 1773, decreed by tlje Empress, fixed
everything relating to tbe maintenance of good order and discipline.
Que of the articles of this decree deserves to be cited at length, as
showing at once the progress of humanity and tbe impossibility of
wholly escaping the influence of tbe ideas and usages of the times.
Article 26 reads thus :
As regards the police of tLe prisou, we reserve it for a separate regulation, but iu tlio
mean time we declare that tbe directors, who sbail be placed over tbe police, will not
be permitted to iullict upon any prisoner graver punishment than that of confinement
for two days on bread and water ; and in case the offense merit a more severe correc-
tion, they shall report it to the tirst meeting of the administrators, who, on their part,
will be allowed to prescribe only correctional puuishmeuts, snclv as bein» tied for some
hours to a post, to receive some hJoivs wilh a stick, which shall not exceed twenty-five,
or of being confined for a moderate time in a ribbed prison— that is, on a floor with sharp
edges, {duns nne prison a cotes, sur im plancher a aretes vives) — or for a few days in an
ordinary jirison on bread and water.
Article 27 also contains a remarkable provision, and one which must
have been very sensibly felt by tbe prisoners when the time for their
liberation came :
Every prisoner who, by lesolution of the administrators, shall have been confined in
a ribbed prison, shall remain, for each time that lie shall have be;m so punished, eight
days in the prison beyond his term.
(3n this the Viscount Vilain ])ei"tiiieut]y inquires whotber, conversely,
justice does not also icquire tiiat tlu^ inisoncr who siiall bave strictly
observed tbe ruU'S an<l regulations be rewarded therefor; whether it
is not just tbat he mIio has shown zeal and exactness in tbe fulillment
of liis duties, wbo has labored to reform his manners, and has mastered
a trade tbat will insure him an honest living, should not be sooner re
Htored 1o liberty. If bad conduct prolongs, ought not good conduct
to aljridge bis imprisonment"? The viscount adds:
Tlie hope of sliortcning his captivity would be of the greatest service lo liim ; it
woiild be a strong modvtj to industry and good order; it woidd tend to beget and
elwrixli in ]jim a. love of work; and it would certainly be a nuNins of inii)roving the
discipline.
\'ihiin liebl and prochiiiiicd I be soiiiKlcst opinions regarding tbe dura-
tion of inq)ris()niii('iits ;ind the ntt(U' wortbicssness of short detentions
as an agent of relbrm. Jle says :
Tho admlMlHtratiou will please observe that the (crin of six montlis is too short to
reform cri.ninals and train them to tlw love ;iiul priicticcor iiidiistiy. These short-
THE PELSON OF GHENT. 1S9
term prisoners set a bad example to tbo others. They say that it is uot worth the
trouble of beginniuf^- an apprenticeship; and all their thought is directed to the termi-
nation of their iniprisounuiut, that they may again return to a life of idleness.
These considerations lead him to the conclusion that the niiuiiuum of
imprisonment should be Hxed at a year. On the other side, he says :
A life-sentence reduces convicts to despair. Deprived of hope, they are indifferent
alike to reforuuition and labor, and tliey turn their attention only to schemes of escape
or revolt. Since we have not ^een fit to deprive them of life, why should we seek to
make it insupportable to them? Why not hsave them the hope of re-enteriiiff society
after expiating- their crimes and rendering themselves worthy by assiduous labor and
a genuine repentance?
The viscount, in his memoir, enters into the further inquiry whether,
by the labor of the prisoners, the establishment may not be made self-
supporting, and whether this same labor may not even be rendered a
source of profit to the state without prejudice to free labor outside, and,
in fine, whether the establishment of the house of correction sufficiently
answers to the general desire of the ])ublic and to the end proposed,
which is to dry ui), or at least lessen, the sources of the evil, viz, idle-
ness and vagrancy, so hurtful to the repose of society. He insists, above
all, on the necessity of establishing in the house of correction manufac-
tures and trades, which will assure to the prisoners on their liberation
the means of an honest livelihood by their own labor. The aim is de-
clared to be to impart a love of work, and to form them to habits of in-
dustry.
Finally, he i)roposes an establishment or school, under the name of
hospital — a hospital for moral rather than bodily diseases — where the
children of the poor will be reared and maintained in labor and good
manners. The state, he says, is too much interested, has too deep a
stake, in the extirpation of mendicity, not to make trial of this supreme
agency to that end.
In his sixth section M." Visschers has collected divers honorable testi-
monies from various countries attesting the merit of the work so hap-
pily accomplished by the Viscount Vilain. Tlie first and most impor-
tant is that of the great English philanthropist Howard. He visited the
prison in ITTo-'TO, and iound there two hundred and fifty criminals —
one hundred and ninety-one men and one hundred and fifty-nine
women. Being present at the dinner of the male prisoners, he admired
the regularity, decency, and order with which everything was done at
the word of the director ; not the least noise or wrangling was heard.
He remarks :
This assemblage of one hundred and ninety criminals, robust and turbulent, seems
to be governed with greater facility and less confnsion than would be an assemblage
of wise and educated men in civil society.
Eight small chambers or dungeons existed at that time for the punish-
ment of refractory prisoners; but Howard found them always empty.
He visited Ghent again in 1778. " I then saw," he wrote, "that the
establishment was managed like a well-regulated manufactory. The
prison population consisted of two hundred and eighty men and one
hundred and seventy women. These last were engaged in making the
clothing necessary for the house. ]\Iost of them, ranged in order, were
spinning, knitting, or weaving, all attentive to their work and perfectly'
quiet. There was given to all, both men and women, one-fifth of their
earnings. The specimens of cloth made there proved how much those
are mistaken who think that no manufacture can be useful or prosper-
ous which is carried on by hands imprisoned and forced to labor."
In 1781 he found the same care, the same discipline, the same dili-
200 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
. gence, aud the same progressive amelioration of the prisoners. There
were two hundred and six male criminals, one hundred and six male
delinquents, (including sturdy beggars,) and one hundred and fifty
women, all occupied in divers manufactures or in the service of the
establishment. The bread, soup, and meat were of good quality and in
abundance. Everything announced the care and vigilant attention of
the director.
I cannot but pause here for a moment to gather up and i)resent to
the admiration of all who read these pages the salient features of this
remarkable experiment, conceived, inaugurated, and carried out to a
complete success by Viscount Vilain, certainly one of the wisest and
most gifted statesmen who have ever contributed by the light and
warmth of their genius to the progress of humanity. Here we lind, al-
ready discovered and applied a century ago, nearly all the great prin-
ciples which the world even to day is but slowly and painfully seeking
to introduce into ])rison management. What are they "? lieformatiou,
as the supreme end to be kept in view ; hope, as the great regenerative
force in i)risons ; industrial labor, as another of the vital forces to be
employed to the same end ; religious and scholastic education and train-
ing, as a third force belonging to the same category ; abbreviation of
sentence and ])articipatiou in earnings as incentives to be held out to
prisoners to diligence, good touduct, and effort at self-improvement ;
the enlistment of the will of the criminal in the work of his own moral
regeneration — his new birth to a respect for the laws ; the introduction
of variety of trades into i)risons, and the thorough mastery by every
prisoner of some one handicraft, as supplying the means of honest sup-
port after discharge ; the use of the law of love and kindness as an
agent of prison discipline, to the exclusion, as far as possible, of the
grosser forms of force, which act upon the will mainly through the body ;
the utter worthlessness of short imprisonments, and the absolute neces-
sity of longer terms, even for minor offenses, as the sole condition of the
application to such offenders of reformatory processes; and the care,
education, and indnstiial training of the children of the poor, and of
other children addicted to vagrant habits, or otherwise in i)eril of
falling into crime ; an anticipation, in essential features and aims, of
the industrial school and Ju\'enile reformatory of the present day.
Howard revisited Ghent in ITSo, but tlie jjiison was no longer what
it had been. The I'imperor, Joseph II, had yielded to the hostile re]>-
resentations of interested persons, wlio claimed that the prison labor
offered an unjust competition with tree labor outside, and had abolished
the system of labor introduced by the Viscount Vilain and practised
with such excelkMit effect. In conse(iuence of this action of tiie Em-
])eror,the manufacture, so useful and tiouiishiiig,ha(l been <lestroyed, the
trades al)and()iH'd, the tools sold, and the nobk' views of the founders of
the lioiisc; were, ibr the time, utterly thwarted and overthrown. IJnf un-
der tlie ibstciing care (»f tlie hitci able? insjx'ctor-general of prisons in Bel-
gium, lOdwaid Ducpctiaux, the prison of (Iheiit rej^ained in great part
its former chaiactcr.
In liissevenfli section M. Visscheis tracesbiielly the progress of prison
discipliru^ during the hist century, and gives an inter<\sting rr,v/f/«J of
the i)risoti systrmsof <lilfcnMit <;ountries at the present time. As the re-
sult of this review, lie tlius (\xpr(!ss(^s, in the closing sentences of his
essay, his ]>refeien(;e for what lias become widcily known as the Oroftou
prison system :
rroj^ti'HHiv«i cliiHsiric'if i(in, with fjr.'Khinl amolioriitioii of Iho priHoncM-'H condiliioii uiiil
iiiif^iiiriitatitiii of till! jicciiiiiury jnolils dcrivctl IVoiii lus labor, lias lud to the diHuovory
PRISON OF GHENT DR. DESPINE's PAPER. 201
of a new and fruitful princiiile, cmnlation. On one side, tlie convict dreads the conse-
quences of every fault against discipline wliich would degrade bini to a lower class ;
and, on the other, he sees the means of gradually iiuprovitig his lot and hastening, per-
chance, the moment of his liberation. In the class to which he belongs, he has seen
such and such comrades in toil, who, in recompense for their good conduct and dili-
gence, have been promoted to a higher class. He says to himself that it depends upon
his own will, upon the steadfastness of his efforts, to arrive at the same result.
Another consideration : We haveoltserved how nuich deeper is the impression made
by the divine word upon the heart and mind of prisoners when they are associated
in worship. The same advantage is found in associated scholastic instruction.
But how great the dilierence for the convict, who must one day re-enter society, to
have accjuired the knowledge of a trade and to have labored under the ordinary con-
ditions of life! It is a labor spirited, active, sustained ; while, in the cell, after a so-
journ too protracted, the convict knows only sadness, depression, and somnolence, and
loses all energy, moral and physical. If, on his return to society, he must encounter
the rough competitions of labor, if life itself has its asperities, will he be better pre-
jjared for these by a long sequestration ? Shall freedom be given back to him without
any tests to show whether he is able to bear it, or worthy to obtain it f Ought not soci-
ety to exact guarantees sufficient, I will not say of his repentance, but of his good con-
duct, and his ability to henceforth lead an honest life ?
It is in view^ of the happy results promised by the system inaugurated in Ireland by
Sir Walter Crofton, and now introduced, with mo<lifieations, into the convict-prisons of
England, that I give it all my sympathies, considering the ideas which belong to it to
be as wise as they are well conceived.
The congress which is about to assemble will listen to the exposition and defense of
all the systems. From its discussions there will flash a living light, which will pene-
trate two hemispheres, and contribute, no doubt,* to elucidate questions which too
long await a solution. I have desired to recall the i)oiut of departui'e, the attempts
made, a century ago, toward the reform of prisons aud the regeueration of criminals.
The measures taken by the states of Flanders in 1771, under the inspiration of the Vis-
count Vilain, for the construction of the house of correction of Ghent, were marked by
a wisdom which cannot be misunderstood — those measures which have borne fruits,
whose excellence was recognized even by contemporaries. The men who have been
benefactors of their age and their country belong to all nations in virtue of the ties of
a common interest which unite all the members of the great human family. Is not
the approaching reunion of the congress about to give the most illustrious example of
this truth ?
Let us place side by side these two mehujrable dates of 1772 and 1872, which will re-
call to our successors the erection of the fust Penitentiary and the meeting of the great
International Penitentiary Congress !
NOTE.
A paper of masterly ability and profouud pliilosopbical analysis was
sent to the congress by Dr. Prosper Despine, of France, on the crimi-
nal himself, of which only a short and imi^erfect abstract was printed
in the Transactions. The undersigned thought this essay of such excep-
tional value, because of its great originality audfreshness, and still more
on account of the just and practical views embodied in it and the scieu-
titic basis on which it seeks to build all prison management, that he
translated and read it in the Kational Prison Peform Congress of Balti-
more, held since the International Congress of London. As it Avill ap-
pear in full in the ])roceedings of the Baltimore meeting, no fuither no-
tice of it need be given here.
PART FOURTH.
EESTTLTS OF THE COMMISSIONER'S PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS
AND INQUIRIES RELATING TO THE PRISONS AND REFORMA-
TORIES OF EUROPE.
INTEODUCTORY.
Both oil his visit to Europe in 1871, to orgtiuize the Cougrcss of Lon-
don, and on that in 1872, to take part in it, the undersigned acted in a
double capacity,beiug' at once commissioner of the ISTatioual Government
and of the National Prison Association of the United States, and, on his
second visit, being still further honored with a commission from the
I)resident of Mexico to represent the government of that country in the
congress. He received, on the eve of his first sailing, the following
letter of instructions from the Hon. Horatio Seymour, President of the
^STational Prison Association, to wit :
United States of America,
New Yoi'k, July 6, 1871.
Silt : As you have been designated by the National Prison Association of the United
■States of America as their commissioner and agent to arrange the j)relinunarie3
of an international congress on penitentiary and reformatory discipline, which is pro-
posed to be held in Enrope in 1872, it becomes my duty as president of the associa-
tion to convey to you the wishes of the body touching the extent and scope of the work
required of you, as well as the manner in which you are to discharge the duties of your
mission. You are to proceed, then, to Enroi)o at the earliest practicable moment, in
fulKlment of tlie trust with which you have been cliarged.
If rclbrms in prison management are ever to be inaugurated, resort must sooner or
later be had to governments, as legisbition is the only mi'ans through which they can
be effected. It has therefore been thought desirable that their co-operation in this
work sliould be enlisted in advance. Hence, one of your chief duties will be to visit
the several governments of Europe, to endeavor to awaken their interest in this pro-
jtosition, and to induce them if possible to take part in the proposed congress by duly-
commissioned ri'presentatives.
It isi)ro1)al)le tliat the initiative of the United States in this project, and the official
participal ion tiierein by the (iiitieral (jlovcrnment, will smooth your path in approach-
ing foreign governnu'iits, and materially aid the success of your mission. You will not
fail to bring this point to their attention, and to press it upon their consideration as
you liave. o]i])oitunity.
Anotlicr duty r('(|uired at your hands will be that of visiting, inspecting, and exam-
ing as many of the ])enal and reformatory institutions of the several countries to
wiiicli youi- mission siiall extend as you conveniently can, in all cases carcifully re-
cording the results of your olmervations. You will also inciuire into the i)rison
HyHteniH of the ditVerent states of lCuro])e, including tiie ))rinciitl(is on wliicii tlnsy are
organized, llii-ir mcules of administration and discipline, and the results accomiilislu^d
through tiu'ir ;ig(Micv. You will si-ek to secure the attendance at the congress of n^p-
resent'iit i vcH IVoin all the iikui-, important ))risi»iis ;ind rcfcu iiialoiics in each country.
A furfiier oliji'ct to Im; kept in view hy you will l)e tliat of conferiing with Ixiards of
]>riHon managers, juison discipline associations, amlolher oigani/.ations iiavingin view,
wholly or in |iait, the prouKiliiui of refoi'nis in this departnu-nt of sucial sciience,
and of juocuring rej»reHentali\es to be scnti by them to lake i)art in tin; deliheratious
of the congresH.
Another of your dudes will be tliat of orgiini/.iMg, wherevisr you <'an, n;iliou;i.l com-
mittees, who will take chargii of the ^vll(lle, l)usiiies.s of Mi.ikiugtlie rei|uisite pn^paia-
tifUis for the congiess in the seveial countries for which tln-y may lie appointed, an<l
who will also j)repare, (to lie reail at the (!ongress) i>rief memoianda sitting Ibrtli tiie
present stall! of tlie jtrison ()uesfion in their r(;sp(ict.ive nationaliiies.
PERSONAL INSPECTION OF IRISH PRISONS. 203
As far as England and France art^ concerned, thoir national committees should be
cliarj^ed with the duty (it, as it is hoped, they are willinj^ to assume it) of correspond-
ing with tile pro))er colonial authorities of their respective countries, and of securing
rejjresentation from every colony suliject to their authority.
An additional duty expected of you will bo that of conferring with x)rominent per-
sons al)r(jad in regard, first, to the ])roper questions to come before tlie congri^ss for its
consideration, and, secondly, the proper persons to be invited to prci)are papers upon
the topics deemed most lit and necessary to be considered by the body. Tlie object
here will he to prepare the way for and facilitate the formation of such a jjrogramme
of proceedings as may be judged best adapted to the ends in view in the calling of
such a congress as the one |)roposed.
On the subjects above referred to, and such others as your own familiarity with
(juestions and interests of this nature may suggest, you will naake the broadest
inquiries and gather the largest amount of inforuiatiou practicable, and will report
fully thereon ro the association on your return.
HORATIO SEYMOUR,
President of the Association.
E. C. Wines, D.D., LL.D.,
Corrc><p'Jiidi»g iSccrelarg and Commissioner of the National Prison Association.
All the points in the foregoing letter of instructions are covered in
]>revions parts of the present report, except that which makes it the
duty of the undersigned to visit, inspect, and examine, as far as circum-
stances would permit, the penal and reformatory institutions of Europe.
To this work he was prompted as well by his own inclination as hy the
iustructious of. the president of the association. In obedience, then, to
the dictates at once of choice and of duty, 1 personally examined, more
or less closely, during my visits to Europe in 1871 and 1872, from (ifty
to sixty of the institutions referred to in the above-cited letter. Of these
I propose to give, not a detailed description, for that would require
both time and sjiace not ut my command, but some passing notice, in
the chapters of this fourth part of my report.
CHAPTEE XXX.
PERSONAL INSPECTION OF PRISONS AND REFORMATORIES IN IRELAND.
§ 1. Convict prisons of Ireland. — The penitentiary system, devised and
carried into effect by Sir Walter Crofton in the convict-prisons of Ireland,
has been so fully described in previous parts of this report, and has be-
come in other ways so widely known, that I do not feel called upon to
go into any detail upon the subject, and shall but briefly describe what
1 personally saw and heard during my visit to this now far-famed con-
vict institution.
Penal servitude in Ireland, sentence to which is never less than five
years, is undergone in three different stages and at three separate and
distinct establishments. The first of these establishments is at Moantjoy,
a. suburb of Dublin, and consists of two prisons — male aud female ; the
second is a public-works prison, on Spike Island, opposite Queenstown,
at the southern extremity of Irelaml, and more than a hundred
miles distant from Dublin ; the third is at Lusk, twelve miles from
Dublin, and is what is called an intermediate ])risou. I spent a day at
each of these establishments, accom[)anied throughout by one or the
other of the two gentlemen composing the board of directors, viz, Mr.
Murray or Captain Barlow — by the latter, however, everywhere, except
at the male prison of Mountjoy. Every desirable attention was shown.
204 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIAEY CONGRESS.
me, and every possible facility afforded for the most thorough ex-
amiuation of every department of the convict service. I was per-
mitted everywhere to converse freely with the convicts to any ex-
tent I desired, and that without the presence of the director who
accompanied me, or i\uy officer of the establishment; and I invited
the confidence of the prisoners by the assurance that whatever they
communicated would be regarded as strictly confidential, and
should not, in any event, be reported to the authorities of the
prison. Had I chosen to continue my investigations long enough
I might, in this manner, have conversed with every inmate of every
prison in the Irisli convict establishment. As it was, I improved my
opportunity to the utmost that my time would permit in conversing
with a greater or less number of cdnvicts in each of the three stages
into which their iin}nisonment is divided. For a decade of years I had
been a diligent stu(leut of the system, devouring everything I could get
hold of on the subject. As far as books could teach it, it is scarcely an
exaggeration to say that I kuew it by heart. And 1 had done what 1
could to make it known to my countrymen. In my annual reports
as secretary of tue Prison Association of Kew York, in numerous short
articles written for the daily and weekly press, in more extended essays
published in the monthly and quarterly journals, in an exhaustive
paper read before the American Social Science Association, in addresses
made at public meetings in various parts of the country, and in private
conversations without number, I had opened, explained, and com-
mended this system in the clearest and strongest terms I could com-
mand. I had echoed and re-echoed the opinion of Italy's greatest
statesman, the late Count Cavour, that the fundamental principle of
this system — progressive. classification based on merit, a progressive
withdiawal of restrait and enlargement of privilege, as they should be
earned and warranted by the prisoner's coiuluct, a gradual and almost
impercei)tible melting of prison life into the freedom of ordinary society
through a i)robationary stage of natural training — that this principle,
applied in some form, whatever the system adopted may be, is "the
only efficacious means of discountenancing vice and checking crime, by
encouraging, through agencies purely philanthropic, the reform of the
criminal, without, however, holding from him his just punishment."
And now 1 solemnly declare that the impressions received from pub-
lished descriptions of the system have been, in the main, (I will not
say without some modifications and abatements,) contirmed by i)ersonal'
inspection and study.
in the two piisons at Mountjoy — first stage — I saw the prisoners con-
fined in sejtaratc c<'Ils, where tijey were kc^pt on coarse and low diet, and
cm](h)yfd at rougli and uninteresting hibor — oakum-[)ickingand the like.
This is tlH", penal stage, and is intended, among other ends to be answ(>red
by it, to make th<', ])rison('r fe(^l that the way of the transgressor is hard.
Its maximum (hiration is niiu^ months, wliich \n;\y by good comhict be
shorteniMl toeiglit. J>ut liope is even here early i)hinted in the prisoner's
l)r<'ast. The utmost i)ains is taken to explain to the (jonvict, in the fullest
and clearest manner, the (Mitiro course of iiis imprisonment, and all the
a«lvantag«*s that will accrue to him, as he advances from stage to stage
and class to class, from good conduct, industry, diligence in stud}",
and att«Mition to his moral improvement. Not only are these things
set bel'ori; each jniso'ier in his cell, but once a. w<'ek ther<^ is held
u kind of (;ateclietieid exercise on the subject, in which tlic^ convicts are
♦luestioned as to tln^ e()mi)leteness and accuracy of theii' knowledge in,
regaid to it. According to the answers given, all eirors are corrected
and nil (leli(;iencies sni»prM'(I. Tiie eriect, «'V(mi in this ixMial stage, I
PERSONAL INSPECTION OF IKISH PRISONS. 205
found to be hope, courage, clieerfuluess, and a patient waiting- for i)rom-
ised ameliorations. Indeed, these ameliorations begin during the i)eriod
of cellular separation, and early in it. At lirst the seclusion is absolute.
After a while, the cell-door is thrown open a i)art of the day, then all day.
This slight approach to society is felt to be a great alleviation, and is
withdrawn for any mis(ronduct. From the first, the prisoners in this
stage are together in chapel, school-room, and exercise-yard. Much
attention is given to education and to moral and religious culture,
wherein the "profiting" of the ]irisoners "appeareth unto all men," who
have oi)portunity of observing it.
The day passed at Spike Island, where the second stage of imijrison-
meut under the Croftou system is passed, was one of great interest to
ane. This may be properly designated as the reformatory stage, for it
is here that the principle of progressive classification is applied and
exerts all its force, having no existence in either the first or third stage.
There are lour classes here, arranged in this order: third, second, first,
and advanced or exemplary. Promotion is determined by marks, of
which the convict can earn a maximum of nine per month, viz, three for
general good conduct, three for industry, and three for school duties — not
actual progress, but attention to lessons and the desire shown to im-
prove. On his transfer from Mountjoy to Spike Island, the convict is
l^laced in the third class ; 18 marks must be earned in order to his pro-
motion from the third to the second class ; 54 for promotion from the
second to the first ; and 108 for promotion from the first to the ad^'auced
or exemplary class. Thus the minimum time in the third class is two
mouths; in the second, six; and in the first, twelve. The time neces-
sary to be ])assed in the advanced class before removal to Lusk is not a
fixed period, but depends upon the length of the prisoner's sentence.
With a five years' sentence, he must remain in this class fourteen
months; with a fifteen years' sentence, he must remain five years and
eight months; and with a sentence between these two extremes, a
period varying with its length. I was surprised to learn that a majority
of the convicts earn the maximum of marks, and of course secure their
promotion from class to class, and finally their transfer to Lusk, within
the minimum period. But hope has a quasi omnipotence.
On the day of my visit to Spike Island, the number of prisoners was
705, distributed as follows: advanced class, 320; first class, 200;
second class, 101 ; third class, 81. The motive to strive for promotion
is not only powerful, but it is constant, and constantly increasing in
strength. The progress toward liberation is the great motive-power;
but there are manifold inducements to exertion, self-denial, self-con-
quest, and self-control besides this. With every advance, there is a
lifting of restraint, an enlargement of privilege, an increase of gratuity,
distinctive badges, better food, improved dress, greater liberty of
action. The great effort is to induce the prisoner to become the chief
agent in his own reformation. The authorities seem to feel that unless
this is done, nothing is done. The result, as I learned it from the lips of
manj^ prisoners Avith whom I conversed — all separate and apart from
their officers — is that the entire prison population, with few exceiitions,
are putting forth constant and vigorous effort to secure their promotion
within the ujinimum time; that Lusk is ever in their thought and on
their tongue; and that the hope of attaining that coveted goal, and a
respectable position as honest laborers beyond it, keeps up heart in
them, and produces alacrity at work and a constant fiow of good spirits.
Tile men are nearl^^ all employed on jmblic works — quarrying and
dressing stone and building docks. Their work is conJ^equently in the
206 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
open air, and a bnsy set of fellows I found tliein. I never saw men
either more industrious or more cheerful in their industry. They were
doing quite as much as any free laborers outside would luiv^e dotie
at the same kind of work, and a great deal more than the free laborers
at that time employed on the island were doing. Still 1 would much
rather have seen them at trades, with a free choice, among twenty or
more, of which they would learn.
Mr. Hays, the active and able governor, allows any and all prisoners
to come to him in his oflSce at 6.30 a. m., with their burdens and griev-
ances. From twelve to eighteen visit him in this way every day, and
he allays their agitations and composes their difficulties. The effect, he
informed me, is excellent. At 7 he holds a kind of court, at which the
warders bring in their reports against any prisoners who may have been
guilty, or who are by tliem regarded as having been guilty, of violating
the prison rules. Of this class of cases he has some four or five every
morning. He keeps a record of them in a book with the following-
headings : J. Kegistered number of prisoner. 2. Name. 3. Date of
report. 4. Nature of charge. . 5. By whom reported. 6. Summary of
evidence. 7. Explanation offered by prisoner. 8. Decision of gov-
ernor. 0. Date of decision.
The punishments here are chiefly of a moral kind : loss of marks, for-
feiture of gratuities, withdrawal of privileges, change of badge, degra-
dation to a lower class, remanding to the cellular prison at Mountjoy^
to which may be added (as punishments occasionally employed) depri-
vation of a meal, close confinement on bread and water, and even, in
aggravated cases, the lasb, which, I trust, will soon be banished in
■scvcK la Hoecu lor urn .
The day I passed at Lusk was a day of mingled wonder and delight.
This is the intermediate prison, so called because it holds a middle
ground between an imprisonment strictly penal and the enjoyment of
full liberty. The aim of the intermediate prison is twofold : first, to test
the reality of the convict's refornuition, his power of self-government,
his ability to withstand temptation ; and, secondly, to train him for a
considerable period — never less than six months — under natural condi-
tions, and so to prei)are him for full freedom on discharge by the enjoy-
ment of partial fieedom as a preliminary step. Accordingly, the impris-
onment here is little more than moral.
I had known thisi)aitof the Irish convict-system, as I had the others,
from books. My expectations regarding it were high, but they were
more than met. Indeed, 1 have never elsewhere seen anything to com-
pare with the results shown here. The intermediate prison which for-
merly existed at Smitlifiehl, in the outskirts of Dublin, has been given
np, and all intermediate ])risoncrs are now sent to Lusk. The number,
on the day of my visit, was fifty-seven ; the usual number is a little in
excess of that figure.
Farm-work is the only industry from which income is received, and
the cash revenue from this source, over and above the value of the pro-
iluctsusedin tiie eslal)lishment, amounts (at least such is my under-
standing ot the matter) to al)ont *!<), <>()(», which makes tin; institution
well-nigh self-supporting. 'JMie larm contains nearly 200 acres. Prior
to the estahlishnient of the piison, this land was a common, wild and
uncultivated. The whole, of it has now bec^n subdued, and brought
under suceessfiil and profitable tillage. The valine of the land has in-
creased under the labor of the ]>risoners, from lO.s'. to £5 per acre.
There is a large animal hay-crop gathered; wheat, oats, and barley
are grown in consideialtle (immtities, but the princii)al products
PERSONAL INSPECTION OF IRISH PRISONS. 207
are potatoes, cabbages, turnips, celery, and other vegetables. It was
the 14th of October when I was there, and the ])risoners were at
work on various parts of the farm, digging esculents, hauling and
spreading lime, and performing other kinds of farm-labor ; and a
half dozen or more were engaged in the construction of a stone
dwelling for the superintendent, in place of the iron hut which at
that time served him for a residence. Everywhere they were as busy as
bees, and, to all appearance, as happy. I never saw a brisker or more
cheerful set of laborers. They accomplish fully as much work as an
equal number of free hands. Indeed, the farmers of the neighborhood
aver that they would be glad to get men who would work as well. For
the most part they work in groups, and have a warder to overseer them,
who is, however, at the same time, a fellow-laborer with them. But
this is not always the case. Often they work alone, or in companies of
tvYO or three, without any one in charge, on the most distant parts of
the farm. As far as appears to the view, there is no more imprison-
ment here than on any other farm. There are no walls, no bars,
no bolts, no gratings, no apparent confinement of any kind. The doors
of the iron tents which serve them as dormitories are locked at night,
just as our own houses are when we retire. The only difference, as far as
I could see, between this and any other large farm employing a great
many hands, was that here a warder slept in a small room at the end of
the large dormitory of the convicts.
In the afternoon I walked about the farm, mingled freely with the
convict laborers, and talked with quite a number of them entirely apart
from the ofticers. Their uniform testimony, the truth of which was at-
tested by their whole tone and bearing, was to this effect : That the hope
held out to them of constantly bettering their condition by their own
exertions was, throughout the whole course of their imprisonment, a
powerful stimulus to good conduct, industry, and exactness in the dis-
charge of all their duties; that the intermediate prison was the goal to-
ward which they had been constantly aiming, the object of incessant desire
and effort ; that at Lusk they never heard any ])lottiug of future crimes;
that, on the contrary, all the talk of the men in that prison, when the time
of their liberation was drawing nigh, was as to where they would go,
what they would do, what wages they might be able to obtain, and how
they could win honest bread and an honorable position; that a profane
or obscene expression was scarcely ever heard there; and that if such a
thing chanced to occur, as it sometimes did, it was instantly frowned
down and put a stop to by the prisoners themselves. Yet thei'e is no
restraint upon conversation at Lusk more than there is among the labor-
ers on any large farm or other well-regulated industrial establishment.
Lusk has now been nearly twenty years open for the reception and treat-
ment of intermediate prisoners, with opportunities of evasion, such as
no other prison in the world offers, and yet scarcely have a dozen at-
tempts at escape been made. The whole vicinage was in terror at the
announcement that a prison witliout walls or bolts was to be established
on Lusk Common ; yet only one complaint, in all these years, has' been
made against the prisoners who have found a home there. That hap-
pened on thiswise: There is no chapel on Lusk farm, and the prisoners
attend the parish church on Sunday in a body. On one occasion a pris-
oner, in leaving the church at the close of the service, addressed a pass-
ing remark to a young woinan at his side. There was no pretense that
the word spoken was in itself an iminoper word. The coni[)laint was
that he spoke to her. There is no (liacipihie at Lusk; no piuiishnieuts
are administered there any more than on a farm or in a manufactHring
establishment where free laborers are ein[(Ioyed. The prisoner was,
208 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
therefore, sent back to Mouutjoy, from wliicli, after a montli's " separate
and solitary coutiiienient," lie was restored to his place on the i)risoii-
farm, and neither before nor since has complaint been made by any
human being against the inmates of the intermediate establishment, a
fact, to my mind, truly marvelous.
During my visit, the entire prison population was called in from their
work to allow me to see them in their school, and especially to witness
one of those competitive examinations, conducted by the prisoners them-
selves, which became so marked a feature of the intermediate prisons
under the late i\[r. Organ. As the men came in, there was nobody in
the room but myself, not a single officer being present ; yet so quietly
did each prisoner enter, go to his own desk or table, take out his book
and commence his studies, that, if my eyes had been closed, I should
scarcely have snpposed that a half dozen persons were in the room;
certainly I could not have dreamed that nearly sixty men had entered.
Isot a word was spoken ; not a disorderly or even playful act was done;
nor was there the least confusion or noise of any sort. Tlie men were
arrayed in two long rows on either side of the room, and, under the.
superintendence of the school-master, the two sides put questions alter-
nately to each other. The exercise was an interesting one, but less so
than I had anticipated. It had somewhat the appearance of being, as
we say, "cut and dried." Mr. Organ is dead, and his successor, in the
lecture department, has not yet been found. Speaking of Mr. Organ,
who, for a dozen years or more, held the double office of superin-
tendent of discharged convicts and lecturer to the intermediate prisons
of Lusk and Smitlifleld, I cannot close my brief account of the visit
made in 1871 to the convict-prisons of Ireland without citing a few sen-
tences trom one of the last reports, if not indeed the very last, made by
him before his lamented death. lie says :
Crime is fast disapi)eariii<jj in Dublin. Old and habitual thieves are becominfj honest
and industrious citizens, while homes, which have hitherto been tlie scenes of vice and
poverty, are now replaced by those of morality and plenty.
Employers continue to repose confidence in my men, and the demand for them has
at times exceeded the snpi)ly.
The moral tone of the institution is most satisfiictory. There is an entire absence
of even the sli^fhtest tendency to immorality, wlietlier in word or act ; and should hy-
pocrisy show itself in a new-comer, it is promptly detected, and as promply censured
by the jtublic opinion of tlie men in the huts."
I cannot speak too hi;;hly of the charnnng effects which farm-labor has produced,
even upon t lie most slu^^yisli criminals, nor of its happy results on even the cool and cal-
<nlatin^ adept in crime, on whose brow the honest drop of sweat had never before
trickled.
I am ready to stake my reputation on the fact, proved in innumerable instances, that
the most indolent criminal can be trained to honest and iiulepenih^nt toil, not so mucli-
tlii()n;;li fear or coercion, as tbiougb tlie inlluence of hope and cncouraiiemeut.
Truly liusk is a magnificent triumph of reason and humainty over coer-
cion and brute f<)r(;e — asph'ndul an(i irn'IVagaI)Ie tcstiiMoiiy to the sound-
ness of till'. ])('iiitentiary system wliich the genius of Sir Walter Crofton
lias given to the worhl.
§ 2. Jumnilc rc/onuatoric.s of Jrchuvl. — Ireland is now well sujjplied
with fills class of institutions, both Catholic and Protestant. Only one
of tiicm, however, was vi.sited by me; and to that I shall conline my
remarks, whi(!h, for the rest, will be V(M-y brief. 1 was accompanied by
Mr. .Jolin Leiitaigne, the intelligent and amiable Inspectoi- of reforma-
t4)ries for Ireland, and two other gentlenuMi, friends of his. The insti-
tnlion visited is tin*, St. Kevin's reformatory, for the treatment of d<v
lincpient (Catholic boys exclusively, and is the largest of the kiml in
*Mr. Or;;nii refers lierc f o flie (wo iron tents at Liisk. erected at a cost of only |i3,0UU
cacli of whicli is, nevertJicless, capalde of accommodating fifty convicts.
PERSONAL INSPECTION OF PRISONS IN ENGLAND. 209
Ireland, having an average of more than three hundred inmates. It is
distant ten miles from Dublin, the road ascending nearly all the way,
and at a pretty steep grade, as the reformatory is 1,800 feet above the
level of the sea. It is situated at the head of a romantic and picturesque
glen, called Glencree, or the Valley of the Heart. The name is most
appropriate, as being significant of the spirit of love and kindness in
which such institutions should be conducted. But, for all that, the
place has not, in my judgment, been well chosen. The soil is of the
worst possible description, the greater jiart of the one hundred acres
rented for the use of the establishment being utterly irreclaimable and
worthless ; and even on the forty or fifty acres that have been brought
under tillage by the labor of the boys, little will grow except grass.
The cold in winter is often intense and the storms terrific. It is but a
few years ago that a juvenile convict, on his way to the reformatory,
was frozen to death before reaching it. All supplies for the institution
have to be hauled on carts or wagons ten miles up a mountain, and
all manufactured articles, seeking a market, the same distance down it.
Yet, despite all these disadvantages and drawbacks, the Glencree re-
formatory is doing good work. Father Fox, born and reared in the
Quaker faith, (and none the worse for that,) is at the head of it; and he
impressed me as being — if I may be allowed a hackneyed but expressive
phrase — pre-eminently " the right man in the right place." At all
events, he and his indefatigable corps of assistants have shown them-
selves greatly successful as regards the main purpose of their work. If
the acres on which the boys are placed have proved, in large measure,
irreclaimable, the case of the boys themselves has been quite different.
[Ninety per cent, of these are reformed, and, on their liberation, become
a constituent part of the industrious and honest yeomanry of the
country. That tells the whole story more eloquently than I could ; and
all further words may be spared.
CHAPTER XXXI.
PERSONAL INSPECTION OF PRISONS AND REFORMATORIES IN ENGLAND.
§ 1. English x^risons. — In the course of my two visits to England I had
opportunity to examine more or less thoroughly four convict-prisons
and some ten or twelve county and borough jails. Compelled to study,
in what remains of my report, a rigid economy of both time and space, I
can give to these establishments only the most cursory notice — far less,
indeed, than either their merits demand, or my own feelings would prompt.
There is much in the English prisons and the English i^enitentiary
system to be admired, commended, and imitated; but there are, also, as
I conceive, things in them to be criticized and avoided; things, too,
which belong to the very core and essence of a just and especially a re-
formatory prison discipline.
The prison buildings in England, as a rule, are substantial structures
of stone or brick, on the radiating plan, well proportioned and pleasing
to the eye,, with a lofty tower attached, for purposes of ventilation ; the
grounds are handsomely laid out in parterres and gravelled walks, and
many oi^them ornamented with flowers, vines, and shrubbery; halls, run-
ning through the center of each wing, are lighted from the top, and the
light is so disposed as to produce a soft and cheerful effect ; the ceils are
spacious, airy, and well lighted, each having a water-closet, gas-burner,
H. Ex. 185 14
210 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
and bell-pull, Avith an iron card attached to it by a spring, wliich starts
out from the wall on the ringing of the bell, and each is also provided with
all needful furniture; the long galleries, tier above tier, impart a feeling
of perfect adaptation to their special object, which is far from unpleas-
ing; the chapels are generally of ample dimensions, of gothic architec-
ture, with groined roofs, always neatly and sometimes beautifully
arranged, and well suited to produce a solemn and soothing effect upon
the prisoners ; an extraordinary cleanliness reigns throughout — in cells,
corridors, offices, everywhere — and one is particularly struck with the
brightness of the brass-fittings and the polish of the metal staii'-cases ;
the hospital accommodations are excellent, the wards being well arranged
for the treatment of diii'ereut classes of disease, and all the appointments
adapted to the convenience, comfort, and cure of the patients ; the venti-
lation, drainage, and all other sanitary arrangements are the best that
science can supply ; the discipline is exact, and is rigidly enforced ;
obedience is prompt, and order and decorum everywhere observed ; and
there is a certain charm in the symmetry, harmony, and clock-like regu-
larity of the whole, which takes away, at least from the first view, the
awe and horror anticipated by the inexperienced observer.
Such, in brief, and without any attempt to exhaust the attractions of
the picture, is the bright side of the English prisons, whether convict,
county, or borough. But, unhappily, there is a per contra. While the
material efficiency of these prisons is certainly very high, the moral
action seemed to me feeble. While the avowed end of all prison au-
thorities— or nearly all — is "reformation,'' it appeared to me doubtful
whether they fully appreciated what that work demands. The whole
aim and instinct are for material efficiency. Hence — so it seemed to my
apprehension — the shell is preferred to the kernel; the forms are made
of more account than the substance. Hence, too, reformatory disci-
pline is, to far too great an extent, made secondary to punitory inflic-
tions. Consequently the men chosen for officers — though, as a class,
superior, I freely adniit, to the same class among ns — are often not of
the sort required for the work to be done. They are too artificial, keep
the prisoners too much at arm's length, rely too exclusively on author-
ity, have too little iaith in the susceptibility of criminals to reforma-
tory agencies, and hence work but feebly— and, as a consequence, with
little effect — to that end. In a word, they are not such — at least the
greater ])art are not — as can subdue, control, and change the prisoners
by moral influence. Though the governors are generally men of ability,
character, and culture, all are not such. Some are unfit for their jiosts.
There sliould tluux'forebesome means devised for testing the deserving
among these and other officers; some mode adopted whereby rewards
and jirelerments maybe given to the meritorious, and the unfit and un-
woitliy remoAed from their ofiices.
Too liLtl(! ac(!Ount, speaking generally, (there arc honorable excejv
tions,) is iiuide in JOnglish ])risons of industrial and skilled Avork ; too
much of wasted labor, in its many forms. Tread-mill, crank, shot-
<lrill, stone breaking, and costly usages of that sort prevail, and the
reaHOUH assigned for their use are a])t to be given in such (;atch-words
as these: "Ancient jtrestige," " nothing to be learned from theorists,''
" practical men," " not presume to be wiser than our forefathers,"
"pro<luctive woik injurious to lionest outsiders," (Jtc. I am sorry to differ
frorji some most ex(;ellent lOiiglisii friends, (tliougli, 1 am glad to add,
sn[t{)ortcd by a host of ollieis.) I)ut I altogether disapprove of mere
penal and unproductive, industry as irritating and brutalizing to pris-
oners. 'Jhe infi'o(lucli<»n of tia<l<'s, as many as possible, cou]»led with
PERSONAL INSPECTION OF ENGLISH PRISONS. 211
longer sentences in the country and borough prisons, seems to me at
the present moment a great want in England. Special prisons might,
l)erhaps, be usefully employed for special trades. I should think it most
desirable to multiply trades, so as to insure, as far as possible, that
every prisoner should learn a way of getting his bread according to his
turn ; and to this turn the aptitudes and tastes of individuals should be
particularly studied. Some liberty of choice should be given in this
matter, even to prisoners ; it would be a great step toward the restora-
tion of their manhood. An incidental advantage of the multiplication
of trades would be that it would tend to stop the mouth of those who
complain of the competition of prison labor with free labor, though really
there is scarcely enough in that argument to merit a refutation of any
kind. Bat for its practical effect on prisons and prisoners, it might be
given to the winds.
Scholastic education in English prisons receives more or less atten-
tion ; in the government or convict prisons, much care is given to it.
But everywhere it needs a broader development, a higher activit3\
Twenty years ago boys were mixed with men in the English prisons,
and came out old knaves, skilled, theoretically, in all the devices of
practised villainy. This is no longer so. But the principle of pro-
gressive classification, by which prisoners, on the ground of merit, are
advanced from stage to stage, with constantly diminished restrictions
and constantly enlarged privileges and comforts, is not widely applied
in county and borough goals ; nor, indeed, can it be, until the principle
of cumulative sentences is incorporated in the penal code. In the con-
vict establishments, known as public- works prisons, progressive classi-
fication exists ; but promotion is earned by industry alone, all other
qualities and efforts being thrown out of the account ; a grave mistake,
in my judgment ; though in part repaired by a forfeiture of marks for
misconduct.
Voluntary and unofficial visitation, for moral and reformatory ends,
by competent and discreet persons, is not admitted in English prisons
of any class. In this respect England has made progress backward in
these later years. Even Latimer, in a sermon preached before Edward
VI, lifted up his voice for this : " I would ye would resort to prisons,"
he exclaimed, " a commendable thing in a Christian realm. It is holy-
day work to visit the prisoners." In Elizabeth's reign, Bernard Gilpin,
not as chaplain, but as a volunteer worker, regularly visited all the jails
that fell within the range of his missionary circuits in the northern
counties. Very soon after the organization of the Christian Knowl-
edge Society, in 1690, a ''committee of prisons" was appointed, who
visited, exhorted, and distributed religious books to the prisoners of
Newgate, Marshalsea, and other London prisons, and sent packages of
their books to all the county jails in the kingdom. The members of the
" Godly Club," embracing the Wesleys, Whitefield, and their most
zealous followers, visited unofificialTy, preached, prayed, and distributed
books and alms in all the prisons within their circuits, and continued
the practice till compelled by the authorities to desist from this part of
their labors. At a later day, John Howard, Elizabeth Fry, Sarah Mar-
tin, and many other excellent men and women, less known to fame, but
no less zealous or worthy, became volunteer visitors in prisons, to the
abundant advantage of England and the world ; insomuch that England,
to-day, may be fitly exhorted, in the words of the Hebrew prophet, to
'' search for the old paths, and walk therein." I do not think that the clergy
oughttobetheonly teachers of prisoners. Competent persons of both sexes
should, under fit restrictions, be admitted, when they are willing, to share
his work with them. Especially women — intelligent, discreet, aiid
212 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
sweetlj-mauiiered womeu — should be eucouraged to visit prisons and
to briug their magnetic influence to bear on the improvement and re-
formation of the prisoners.
Another defect in the penitentiary administration of England: the
will-power of the prisoners is not adequately developed and invigorated.
Fifty years' experience of men, fifty years' work among men, have im-
pressed upon my mind only one idea. It is that nothing can be done
with them except through the will. The will can be reached only through
the intelligence and the heart. For this, first, religion, in all its freedom,
purity, and i)ower, is necessary; and, secondly, in the case of prisoners,
progressive classification, whereby the ordinary motives which control
men in free society, and urge them to industry and virtue, may act
steadily and eftectively upon these also, determining to good the choices
of their will, and so the actions of their life.
One further jioint in a way of criticism : I refer to the want of unity
in the county and borough jail system. Every jail in J^^ngland is inde-
pendent of every other. The little discrimination exercised in tbe
treatment of prisoners struck me as a great defect. There seems only
one medicine for all the diseases. Even in the employment of the
tread-mill, on which no prisoner can be placed except by express author-
ization of the medical officer of the prison, and where, therefore, uni-
formity might be looked for if anywhere, the usages are exceedingly
different. In some jails the working hours on this machine are six and
a half per day; in others, eight and three-quarters. In some the
velocity per minute is thirty-six steps ; in others, forty-eight. And the
number of feet ascended daily varies from 7,800 to 21,000 ! In other
departments of the administration the differences are no less. Now, I
do not object to local government within reasonable limits; on the con-
trary, I favor it strongly, believing it essential to a living, energetic,
effective administration. At the same time I hold, with equal strength
of conviction, that the penal system of a country should be a unit; that
there should be, in each, some central authority, having, within due
bounds, (for in this, as in other departments of the public service,
there may be an excess of centralization,) the oversight and control of
all institutions, whether of a penal or reformatory character, looking to
the prevention and repression of crime. On this condition alone, it
seems to me, can there be secured that skillful adaptation to each other
of the several parts of the system which is necessary to the harmonious
and efficient action of the whole.
1 do not propose a description of particular i)risons, but will make a
passing reference to one or two of them which offer favorable points.
The Devenport prison, of which Mr. Edwards is governor, is one of
these. It has an average of seventy i»risoners. The labor is chiefly
industrial. From cocoa-nut fiber, costing £2 sterling per ton, the pris-
oners manufacture textiles worth JC15. Tiio j)risoners work in associa-
tion ; tlusre is no sepaiation, except at night. In four years there have
been but two recommittals — a pretty strong ju'oof that industrial labor
is not inferior to ])enal laboi- in deterrent effect. There has not been
an indrmaiy cas<', in the last four years.
The Waliclield ])rison, West ]viding, Yorkshire, is admirably organ-
ized an<l managed by its energ(!tic governor, Captain Armytage. The
encircling wall, which is of hewn stone, massive and lofty, incloses
eigliteen acres of ground, wliicli are almost wholly covered with the
numerous buildings belonging to fluj establislinuint. 'J'lie avi-rnge num-
ber of prisonei's is about tw(jlve hnnd^(^(l, ol' whom nearly one sixth are
womeji. The \\'ak(^rield jail is conspicuous among the [uisons of iOng-
AID TO DISCHARGED PRISONERS. 213
land for the zeal ami success with which industrial labor is carried on
in it. In this respect it is quite a counterpart to our American prisons,
presenting in every part a scene of busy toil. I believe it is n(3arly, it'
not quite, self-sustaining", and I think it has no tread-mill ; but my notes
are silent on both points, and ray recollection is not perfectly clear on
either. The prison is built on the separate pUiu, which is carried out
to a certain extent; but the exigencies of the labor system adopted have
made great inroads u])on that principle. In effect, the prison is conducted
much more upon the Auburn than the Philadelphia system. Numerous
trades are carried on here, being required to meet the wants of so vast
an establishment; but the only industry which brings in a money rev-
enue is the manufacture of mats and matting. Of these the amount pro-
duced is enormous. The chief market is the United States, particularly
Xew York and San Francisco, the great carpet-house of the Messrs.
Sloane, in the former of these cities, being purchasers to the extent of
something like $25,000 annually. The prison has a cash capital of
$100,000, all derived from the earnings of the prisoners.
§ 2. Aid to discharged prisoners — the refiiges at WaJ,:eJi.eld. — Liberated
prisoners in England are helped in their efforts to reform mainly by aid
societies ; but two of the most interesting establishments in the world,
instituted in this view, exist in connection with the Wakefield prison.
One of these is a refuge for male prisoners discharged from the estab-
lishment, and the other a home, similar in design and character, for the
females. The chance here afforded, through these refuges or homes, to
every released prisoner, male or female, who desires to reform and eat
honest bread, is beyond all praise. In the male refuge, at the time of
my visit in 1871, there were accommodations for forty inmates, but they
could, at any time, be readily enlarged so as to admit a considerable
number more. The inmates are furnished with good board ; clean and
well-aired dormitories ; a bed consisting of iron bedstead, a first-quality
hair-mattress, three sheets, two pillow-cases, two dark blankets, one
white coverlet, and a box serving at once as a trunk and a seat ; a night-
school every evening ; a preaching service and Sunday-school on the Sab-
bath; a well-selected miscellaneous library; a reading-room, provided
with daily and weekly journals, «&c., all at an average rate of 7s. 2d.
sterling per capita a week. They work at mat-making, and their
average weekly earnings are from eleven to twelve shillings. They
do piece-work at rates a little less than those usually paid, because
the refuge is not designed to afford permanent employment, but merely
to bridge over the chasm between the prison and steady remunera-
tive labor. This chance is given to every man released from the
Wakefield prison who desires it, and its benefits are fully ex])lained to
all during their incarceration, so that not a solitary person, discharged
from that prison, can ever come back to it under the pretext that he
could get no work to do. Is not that noble 1 Why may not ail large
penal establishments organize something of the same kind ?
The home for discharged female prisoners is managed upon the same
general principles, but the women are not able to earn a full support.
The income from their work has to be supplemented by private bene-
factions. They are accommodated in a new and spacious mansion, built
expressly for the purpose, admirably planned, and provided with all
needful appointments.
§ 3. Mrs. Meredith-s Wash-house. — Among the almost iuuumerable
charities of London there is one of a very peculiar character, called
the Prison Mission, which is as praiseworthy" as it is original. It was
devised seven or eight years ago by the lady whose name stands in the
214 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
captiou of tbis section, aud who is well known in England as one of the
most energetic and efficient workers in behalf of discharged female
prisoners in that conntry. The work of the mission is divided into
four branches, of which two only will be noticed — aud that all too
briefly — in this report.
One of these aims is to assist aud save prisoners discharged from the
London House of Correction for Women. The ladies of the mission have
hired two small rooms near the gate of the prison, where some of them
are in attendance every morning at the hour when those who have served
out their time are discharged, to capture (if that word is admissible in
a good sense) as many of the women who have been set free as they
can persuade to try a better way of life. They give them a hot cup of
tea, with a piece of bread aud cheese, read a portion of scripture aud
offer prayer on their behalf, and explain to them their benevolent in-
tentions and the advautages to be gained from yielding to their persua-
sions. They succeed in their endeavors with a few of the multitude of
wretched outcasts who daily emerge from those prison-walls. But
what do they do with and for those whom they have won 1 They have
established an immense laundry, where the clothing and bedding of the
poorest and foulest dwellers in the crowded dens of London are washed
by these liberated convicts at a cost considerably below what they could do
it for themselves. Scores and hundreds of these poor creatures are lifted
up and restored to the walks of honest industry through this unique
an(J wonderful agency. The women come at 8 in the morning and leave
at 7 in the evening, having an hour's intermission at raid-day. They
bring their own dinners, but are provided with a free tea, aud receive a
shilling a day for their work. Every afternoon, at 4, they are assem-
bled in the chapel, when a chapter is read aud prayer offered ; and
every Snuday evening, at 7 o'clock, a special service is held, to which
all are invited ; the gospel is preached, and each is afforded, if she will
accept, the refreshment of a cup of tea. What a noble charity ! It
gives work to those whom none are willing to employ. It pays wages
to those who are forbidden by many barriers to seek their livelihood
elsewhere. It affords them the opportunity, while earning bread, to
earn also an honest fame, aud to secure ultimately, which nearly all
do, better work and higher pay. At the same time, it is a charity which
has another aspect, scarcely less important or beneficent, in enabling the
lowest class of the London poor to secure (;lean clothing and bedding at
the cheapest possible rate — Gd. per dozen i)ie('es.
The othoi' bianch of the ])rison mission-work, to which reference will
here be made, is of a pri^veutive character. It aims to save the children
of ci'iiiiiuals from the i)aths trodden by their parents. The ladies have
estal)lished a village of cottages, each cottage containing accommoda-
tions foi- ten children, who are ])laced under the care of an adoptive
mother. Tills settlement is called " Princess Mary's Village," that lady,
now the Duchess of Teck, having taken the Avork under lier especial
l)atroiiag«'. At ])resent there are ten cottages clustering around a neat
little church :in<l school-house. The intention is to enlarge the village
as rti])idly as (;ii(;umstances will i)ermit, until the nund)er of cottages
readies thirty, thus pr()\'iding for three Iiundred children.
. § I. The, Cnrlhk Memorial Rcl'iujc for ^yom(m. — The assistan<;e given to
liberated male jMisoiieis in lOngland is almost wholly through aid socie-
ties. Mot so, however, with female inisoners. Indeed, societies would
not, for them, meet (he necessities of the (^ase. It is far more diflicult
for women than for men to obtain situations immediately on their re-
lease from^piison. Conse(|uently they need to have ])rovi(led some
AID TO DISCHARGED PRISONERS. 215
place in wliich their good resolutions may be tested, aud some s'uarantee
given for their continued good conduct, before families will be willing
to receive them into permanent employment. Hence, those women who
so elect, if their prison character has been such as to warrant the indul-
gence, are allowed to pass the six months immediately preceding the
term of their release in refuges established and managed by private ef-
fortj but assisted by contributions from the government. Here they
enjoy the advantages of a treatment approaching that of home influence,
for those establishments are not prisons, either in appearance or dis-
cipline— they are homes. There are now three refuges for female convicts,
the Carlisle Memoral Kefuge, at Winchester ; the Eagle House Kefuge,
at Hammersmith, for Eoman Catholics, and the Westminster Memorial
Eefuge, lately established at Streatham. One hundred and seventeen
women passed through these refuges in 1871 out of a total of two hun-
dred and seventy-five who were discharged from sentences of penal
servitude. The number availing themselves of the advantages they
ofter has heretofore been limited, for want of accommodation ; but the
establishment of the last-mentioned refuge at Streatham has prevented
the possibility of their suffering this disadvantage again.
Of these, the only one which I visited in the summer of 1871 was the
Carlisle Memorial Kefuge, at W^inchester, at that time under the general
direction of Sir Walter Crofton. I was much pleased with the institu-
tion, which, from its reports and from what Sir Walter told me, has
been very successful in saving from a return to crime the class for whom
it is designed. The* superintendent. Miss Pumfrey, seemed admirably
fitted for her place. Lady Crofton, 1 found, took an active interest in
the refuge, spending three hours there daily in keeping the books and
conducting the correspondence. The number of inmates was about sixty,
which, I think, is not far from the average. Much pains is taken to
keep track of the women after they leave the refuge. Here is a speci-
men of the record kept of each :
, discharged August. 9, 18!)7. Same date, Tveut as servant at 14 Queeu
square, London. February, 1869, left with a good character, and went aa housemaid
in Grove street. No. 104. January, 1870, went as housemaid in Birmingham. May 16,
1870, doing well in same place. July, 1870, in same place; wages raised; visited by
Miss Pnmfrey. November 25, 1870, doing well in same place. Same in January, 1871.
Same in June and July, 1871, at which latter date she was receiving £18 a year.
The sentiments cherished toward the refuge by those who have en-
joyed and appreciated its advantages are well expressed in a letter ad-
dressed to Miss Pumfrey by this same person, nnder date of June 6,
1871. The original now lies before me, and I take from it the following
sentences :
Deak Mis.s PuMFiiKY : * " * Will you please write to me soon ? I
do want to hear how you are, for I can nev^r forget you, dear Miss Pumfrey, never.
You did say, please, miss, you would give me one of your portraits. Will you
please send me one, if you have one to spare, so that I may place it beside dear Mrs.
Bradstock ? How is that dear lady* aud family ? Hope they, with yourself, are
well. May the Lord God Almighty ever bless you both for the many hearts you have
saved and made happy from trouble. Dear Miss Pumfrey, how are all the women go-
ing ou ? I hope they do not give you much trouble. Please remember me to those
that know me, and tell them I am still quite happy, aud also tell them that the
path of honesty, righteousness, and truth is the path that leads to happiness; and I
pray that many, many more souls may be brought to Jesus — yea, that all may be
brought to Jesus — as dear Mrs. Barton used to say, " one and all." " Him that cometh
unto me I will in no wise cast out." Precious woixlsl Onward, homeward, upward,
heavenward. Good-bye. God bless you.
From vour humble friend.
Referriufr to Ladv Crofton.
216 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
§ 5. English reformatories. — These have l)eeii, both in their principles
and Avorkiugs, so fully described in preceding parts of this report, that
I do not think it necessary to enter into further detail upon the subject.
A considerable number of them were visited in different parts of the
kingdom, one or two of which I had intended to describe, particularly
Miss Carpenter's Eed Lodge Girls' Eeformatory, at Bristol, a model in-
stitution in all respects, especially in its intermediate dei^artment ; and
the girls' reformatory, at Hampstead, London, under the care of Miss
Mcoll, which, in neatness, thoroughness, order, and efiiciency, moral
and material, struck me as one of the best-organized and best-managed
institutions of the kind I had ever met with on either side of the At-
lantic. But I forbear.
CHAPTER XXXI L
PERSO>^AJ^ INSPECTION OP- PRISONS AND REFORMATORIES IN SWITZ-
ERLAND.
§1. The priHons of Sicifzerland. — I visited five penitentiaries in Swit-
zerland, viz, at Geneva, Berne, Zurich, Lenzbourg, and Xeufchatel. The
tendency of public opinion in this little republic is strongly in the direc-
tion of the Crofton prison system in its fundamental principle — that of
progressive classification,, with gradual withdrawal of restraint and
enlargement of privilege, as these are earned by industry, good con-
duct, and manifest and successful effort on the part of the prisoner
toward self-conquest and self-control. However, the first two of the
penitentiaries named above — those at Geneva and Berne — are quite an
exception to this rule. 1 shall attempt no description of them further
than to say that they appeared to me deficient in most of the essential
qualitiies of good prisons. Each of them may be pronounced a discredit
to the city which i)rovides no more suitable plan for the treatment of
its criminals, to whatever extent they may have offended against the
laws. If, as I hope, the next international prison reform congress shall
be held in Switzerland, it will become these two ancient and renowned
cities to bestir themselves in the erection and organization of prisons
more worthy of themselves and their country, and more in harmony with
the progressive spirit of the age in the matter of penitentiary discipline.
On the other hand, the penitentiaries of Zurich, Lenzbourg, and Xeuf-
chatel which I visited, and, as I was informed, those of St. Gall, Bille-
ville, Tessin, an(i perhaps some others, are in a satisfactory condition.
Into all of them, I think, has been introduced, in different degrees and
with various modifications, the progressive Crofton penitentiary system.
The penitentiary at Zuricli is under the care of Mr. Wegmann as di-
rector, who is a most excclh'ut i)orson, Avith advanced ideas, thoroughly
devot(*<l to his work, and intent on iwipioving the mental and moral
state of liis i)risoners. The ])rison bnihling is an old Dominician con-
vent, of huge <limensions, l)nilt in the iniddU^ uges, massive and strong.
It has been altered and a<'<'()mm()dated to its present) uses. Naturally it
is irregular in structure ami arrangements; but it is well kept, clean
and ))ure in eveiy part. The average number of inmates falls but little
short of 2'>0; at the time of my visit ther(^ were 210. It is organized
and conducte<l on the i)rogressivo i)lan. There are three classes. In
the lowest class, there were 00 the day 1 was tliere; in the second, 128;
and in tiie third, or highest, 12. Trisoners in the lowest class are in
cellular confinement night and day ; those in the other two are in sepa-
ration only iit iii^lit. The miiiimmn of cellular imprisonment is three
PERSONAL INSPECTION OF SWLSS PRISONS. 217
montlis ; the maximum, six months. Privileges are increased as they are
earned. Ten to fifteen trades are carried on here. Prisoners who were
artisans prior to their commitment work, when possible, at the trades
which they had previously practised. Prisoners ignorant of a trade when
committed are allowed to choose from among those practised in the prison
the one they prefer. The prison has a chaplain, who devotes his whole
time to the dnties of his office. This officer had died the week before my
visit, and no successor had been appointed. The late incumbent acted as
schoolmaster as well as chaplain ; but hereafter this office will be sep-
arated from the chaplaihcy ; and the schoolmaster, like the chaplain,
will give his whole strength to his own work, that of secular or scholastic
instruction.
The canton of Zurich has a new criminal code, of rare simplicity and
excellence, the work, largely, of the distinguished Professor D'Orelli,
in whose society and that of a few other cultivated gentlemen I had the
honor to pass an evening, greatly to my jirofit as well as delight.
The penitentiary of Leuzbourg, in the canton of Argovie, has been
built within the last few years. It is admirably arranged in all respects,
and j)rovided with every convenience and facility for the effective treat-
ment of criminal men and women. Both its construction and organ-
ization are due to the zeal and energy of the late president of the
confederation, Mr. Welti, a gentleman of marked ability, wisdom, and
philanthropy, whom I found at the executive office in the national cap-
itol, and ready to receive visitors at 8 o'clock in tliG morning, earlier, I
think, than any other ruler in the world. The director of the peniten-
tiary is Mr. Victor Hiirlin, whose installation had but recently taken
place. We were, therefore, shown through the establishment by the
sub-director, who has been many years in office, and who impressed me
as a man of great intelligence and efficiency. The prison I found, through-
out, in excellent condition, and altogether an admirable institution. On
the day of my visit, there were two hundred and three prisoners, of
whom thirty-three Vv'cre women. It is managed on the Crofton system,
with the inmates divided into three classes. The duration of cellular
imprisonment here is quite elastic. It has a maximum, but no mini-
mum limit. The maximum is a year, but within that period the director
can transfer a prisoner from the separate to the associated stage when-
ever he judges it expedient. Unlike Zurich, the number of prisoners
in each of the three classes in the Lenzbourg penitentiary was nearly the
same. The number of trades practised is twelve to fifteen, and the con-
vict has the choice of which he will learn. .
^At the penitentiary of Xeufchatel I passed several days as the
-x^est of its director, Dr. Guillaume. I had opportunity to study
it thoroughly, and I feel no hesitation in placing it among the
model prisons of the world. Dr. Guillaume is a gentleman of great
versatility of talent, high culture, boundless enthusiasm, and rare
aptitudes for his calling. He has but one idea, one aim; and to that he
bends all his strength with a sleepless and tireless devotion : it is to
change the bad men committed to his care into good ones ; to receive
criminals, and return them to society honest men. The average number
of prisoners is about eighty, all men. Thtre are three kinds of sentence-
Some of the inmates are sentenced to simple imprisonment, (these
are called correctionals;) some to reclusion, (no English equivalent in the
sense here used,) and some to travaux forces, (hard labor.)* Those under
* By the introduction of tbis statement here it is not meant to be implied that these
sentences are peculiar to Neufchiitel. The distinction is one in use in most of the coun-
tries of continental Europe.
218 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
the first-named sentence are misdemeanants ; those under the other two,
felons. Nevertheless, in prison they all have much the same treatment.
The number sentenced correctionally, as compared with those sentenced
to reclusion and hard labor, is nearly as seveu to one ; but the number
of correctionals actually in imson at any one time is but little more
than half of the whole number of inmates. The reason is the compara-
tive shortness of their sentences. These vary from a month to two
years, but the average is only four months.
The penitentiary treatment here has for its aim, as already stated, the
moral reformation of the prisoner. This treatment is progressive, and
the classification is similar in principle to that of the Crofton system.
On their entrance the prisoners are placed in the lower or penal class.
In this class cellular separation, day and night, is rigidly enforced. The
prisoners are placed in cells bare of all ornament and having few articles
of furniture, simply such as a due regard to health requires. In this
class the prisoner receives only 5 per cent, of his earnings. He is not
permitted to wear his beard nor to cultivate plants in his exercise-yard.
He can have only such books as are selected for him and can corre-
spond with his friends and receive their visits to but a very limited ex-
tent, and only in cases where it is believed that these influences will be
decidedly beneficial. The aim is to lead the criminal to turn the mental
eye inward and to reflect upon the i^ast, so that he may better weigh
the present and take care for the future. This self-introspection is thought
indispensable to secure the sincere assent of the prisoner to the treatment
of w^hich he is made the object. Isolation and the visits of the officers
are found to greatly facilitate the salutary reflections which it is sought
to induce in the prisoner's mind. These reflections have also a deterrent
effect, for ail who have thus gone over their past lives have declared
tliatjif they could at that moment have left the prison, it seemed to them
that they would ever afterward have remembered the lesson thus re-
ceived. Correctionals, sentenced to only a short imprisonment, do not
get beyond this penal class, in which the discipline is intended to be of
a deterrent character. Those who are sentenced to longer terms i)ass
successively into the middle class and then into the superior.
There is no fixed minimum or maximum for separate imprisonment ;
its duration is in the discretion of the director. He liolds, however, at
the end of each month, a conference with the chaplain, school-master,
steward, and chief warder, for the i)urpose of distributing the marks
to which each is entitled for the month, for good conduct, for industry,
and for attention to lessons: 0 signilics bad; 1, tolerable; 2, good: 3,
very good. Tliemiixinnim of marks attainable in a month, it is thus seen,
is 0, as in tli(^ (Jrolton system. These marl^s, as well as the amount of
earnings ai)portioned to liim, are set <low]i in the moral account kept with
each ))risoner. Tliey are also transcribed into the memorandum-book of
the ])risoner, who is thus ke])t constantly informed of the judgment
fomcd by llic, j)rison authorities of hisconduct. The proportion of earnings
accorded to prisoners in the middle class is from 5 to lli per cent. ; in
the sup(;rioi-, from J 2 to 20. In these two classes they receive a larger
percentage of earnings in ])ro])ortion as the aggregate is greater ; never-
theless, tiie eon<ln(tt of tlie ]>rii«)ner and the <legree of attention given to
his lessons lia\(' their effect, in diminishing or increasing the amount.
Promotion from <»n(^ class to another is determined by the prisoner's
character, his ante(;<'dents, and the lengtli of his sentence.
At the dat(! of my visit. — not counting correctionals sentenced to a
short imi)ris()nment — there Mcrci in the ])enal class '.M ; in the middle,
1'J; in tiie superior, 14. Among tliose; in the superior class were a
PENITENTIARY OF NEUCHATEL. 219
imniber who had beeu in the prison ten, twelve, fifteen years, and who
wouUl have been free, if the i)rinciple of provisional liberation had beeu
introduced into Switzerland. ]t is believed that this principle will soon
have place in the Swiss legislation.
With a view to gaining the will of the prisoner to the system of dis-
cipline to which he is to be subjected, this system is explained to him
as soon as he enters the penitentiary. His antecedents are made the
object of a careful but kindly examination. He is aided by suitable
suggestions in his endeavor to search into the causes which led him
into crime. Each case becomes the subject of a serious inquest, and
confidential information is souglit from respectable persons by means
of some such letter as this :
Siu: , of , aged , has just been committed to the peniten-
tiary of Neufchatcl, to undergo there an imprisonment of years. For the purpose
of being able to direct his penitentiary education with some chances of success, we
desire to obtain exact information concerning his fiimily and the associations in which
he has lived: concerning his education, his religions and scholastic knowledge, his ap-
prenticeship, his occupation, his means of living, his character and moral habits ; in a
word, concerning all the points which might guide us in our task and enlighten us as
to the causes which have conducted him into the pathway of crime. Knowing the
interest you take in the unfortunate, we venture to send you the accompanying
formula, which we ask you to return to us after having answered, confidentially, thu
([uestions contained in it. Thanking you in advance, we are, &c.,
[Signed by the director and chaplain of the penitentiary.]"
* A formula is iiiclosed in this letter headed, " Confidential informations." Each
page is ruled in two columns — the left containing jninted questions, the right being-
blank to receive the answers. I print them solid, to economize space, and in a note,
to a.void breaking the continuity of the text: 1. Name and surname of the prisoner?
2. Date of birth 1 3. Place of nativity '/ 4. Legitimate or illegitimate? .5. An orjihan?
By loss of both p.areuts? Of father ? Of mother? G. Since what age? 7. What
was his education up to the time of entering the primary school? 8. Did ho live
at home ? 9. Or was he placed at board? With whom and where? By whom?
10. How many years did he attend school? 11. In what place ? 12. Was he studious ?
Did he show a taste for study or was he idle, indift'erent, &c.'! V-i. At what age did
he quit school? 14. W^hat degree of learning had he when he ceased going to school?
15. Has he attended night-schools ? 16. At Avhat age did he pursue the course of
religious instruction and ratify the vow of his baptism ? 17. Have you noticed any-
thing special in the character of this catechumen ? 18. Has he undergone an appi'en-
ticeship '? 19. What and with whom? 20. Did. his master set him a good example?
21. What was the duration of his apprenticeship 1 22. What company has he fre-
quented ? 23. After his first communion was he seen in the wf/t's making himself
merry with Wine? 24. Was he fond of gaming? 25. Has he traveled? In what
countries? For how many years ? 26. Has he served in foreign armies? 27. What
was then his reputation ? Was he a debauchee ? 28. Are his parents still living ?
29. What were their means of living ? 30. Have they beeu convicted of crime? 31.
Did his grandparents live in the family ? 32. How manj' brothers has he ? How
many sisters? 33. By a first marriage? A second? A third? 34. How old are
they? 35. What are their means of living? 36. Have any of them been in prison ?
.37. Have they a guardian ? Does he do his duty by them ? 38. Do you know of the
existence of mental or physical maladies (insanity, e))ilepsy, &c.) in his family? 39.
Is he married? 40. At what age did he marry ? 41. Did he have the means of sup-
porting a family ? 42. Wliat is the moral character of his wife ? 43. Have they chil-
dren ? 44. How many? 45. Has their education been neglected? 46. Has it Ijcen a
happy marriage? If not, to whom and to what do you trace the pause? 47. Have
their children already been brought before the courts ? 48. Was the prisoner orderly
in his habits? 49. Was he industrious? 50. How much did he earn a day? 51. Is
lie a drunkard ? A gambler? A debauchee? ,52. Has he illegitimate children? 53.
To what cause do you ascribe his misconduct and the crime he has connuitted?
54. Has he had troubles ? Has death sundered the ties of family '! Has he expe-
rienced reverses ? 55. Has he relatives? Uncles? Aunts? What are their moral
character and their social position ? 56. Has the commune aided him, his relatives, or
his family ? 57. Who takes care of his family, now that he is in prison ? 58. Might
the prisoner, on his liberation, return to his previous aViode, or would it be better that
he chcange his associations ?
220 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
Even in this small i>risoii, vritli an averag'e of only eighty inmates^
from fifteen to twenty different industries are carried on, including
shoemakingf, tailorinj^, carpentery, smithery, coopering, turning, lithog-
raphy, watch-making, book-binding, basket-making, brush-making, gar-
dening, &c. Every prisoner, not already master of a trade on his en-
trance, is allowed free choice of any of those pursued in the prison.
The foremen work with the prisoners precisely as a boss mechanic works
with his apprentices. There are never more than four workmen in a
shop, but others are often working at the same trade in cells, who are
instructed and supervised by the same foreman. While he is attending
to them, the prisoners in the common shop are left alone, but they are
as diligent in his absence as when he is present. In a great work-shop,
where the keeper is always on an elevated platform, with no other occu-
pation than that of overseeing a number of men working in silence, it
is impossible for him to give the good example of industrious labor
himself. Such a system is believed by Dr. Guillaume to be as perni-
cious for the prison employe as it is for the prisoners. For this reason
he gives the preference to the system which approaches nearest to that
of the free work-shop, and it is on this account also that thf law of
.silence does not exist in the penitentiary of Xeufchjitel. The same usage is
found in the penitentiary of Baleville, the rule of silence not being en-
forced there. This relaxation is upon the ground (the director of that
prison says) that the liberty of talking openly, ^\ithin fitting — that
is to say, moderate — limits, makes the prisoners more frank and sin-
cere, since it frees them from the necessity of resorting to devices
for the purpose of communicating with each other. In the other
Swiss penitentiary establishments the rule of silence exists. But Dr.
(Tuillaume insists, and, indeed, it is well known to all conversant with
the subject, that prisoners find a certain charm in breaking this rule,
and that they succeed in doing so oidy too often. It is for that reason
that he does not attempt its enforcement in his establishment. He
holds that it is artificial, that it is consequentl}'^ irrational, and fur-
ther that it is little adai)ted to the training process to which prisoners,
if they are to be reformed, must be subjected after the penal stage. In
his own i)rison, where the foreman (who is a prison officer) works with
the convict laborers, and every one is bnsy, there is very little conver-
sation, and what is said relates to the work. At the ten-minute recesses,
at 10 and -i o'clock, conv(n-sation, directed and maintained within the
limits of i)roi)riety and self-res[)ect by the foreman, is found, instead of
being huilful, to liave an excellent elfect. Eor the most |)art it turns
upon the subject of the last school-lesson, tlie mathematical problem
given out to be solved, or the conference of Sunday, at which the, em-
ployc'is, as well as tlie ])risoners, are re(piired to be present. The pres-
<^n(;e of the foreman is considered by Dr. (hiilhiume necessary, in order
that, through his moral ascendency, the conversation may not degen-
erati; into grossness and obscenity. So far, on a three years' trial, the
authorities have only had ocjcasion to congratulate themselves on the
lesults of this system, which seems to be in accordance with the inward
and essential nature of man.
Labor in association is restricted to tlie prisoners in the middle and
snperior classes, and is atrcorded to llifin. only wIkmi tiie accommodations
and tlic kind of indnsti'y pf^rmit. Many icMnain in their cellseven after
having Ix'cn pioiiioted to the. higluM' classes. The lack of suitable
;u'(;omino(iations prevents their introductif)n into the workshop, and de-
]irives of its greater freedom and ]>rivilege, many who have shown them-
selves wortiiv of sneh indulgence. Such relative libertv Dr. (iiuillaume
PENITENTIARY OF NEUCHATEL. 221
considers ii necessity in this stage of penitentiary discipline. This incon-
venience woukl disappear if there were three prison buiklings— one for
each class — in which the arrangements were adapted to the end in view,
and to the necessities of each of these successive stages. The prisoners in
passing from one establishment to another would seethe progress made
toward their liberation. Under the same roof it is diiiicult to establish
and to make sensible the distinction between the two higher x)eniten-
tentiary classes. For this reason Dr. Guillaume is a partisan of the
Crofton system in its strictness.
As regards discipline, no corporal punishments are allowed. The
punishment-cell and a diet of bread and water are authorized by law,
but they are now never employed. Deprivation of work in an ordinary
but empty cell is the severest disciplinary punishment at present in
use. Ennui is found an effective means for conquering the most obsti-
nate, especially if they have been treated with kindness and Justice.
The punishment-cell, it has been found, often makes martyrs, and it is not
well to make martyrs in a penitentiary any more than in politics and re-
ligion. For an officer to lose his temper and speak with anger to a prisoner
who has been guilty of a breach of discipline, is to approach the lower
moral level of the prisoner himself, and to give him reason to believe that
he has not deserved so rigorous a treatment. For this reason Dr. Guil-
laume makes it a rule to treat prisoners as the insane are treated,
whose ill-conduct never provokes the wrath of the physician, but rather
his compassion. He makes them feel, by words calm and self-restrained,
that he is pained to perceive that they do not know how to govern them-
selves, and that they have not j'et attained that self-control, that mas-
tery of their thoughts and acts, that dignity, in a word, which belong
to men who respect themselves. This mode of treatment, employed
with tact and a skillful adaptation to each i)risoner's special character,
has shown itself effectual. It requires more patience, greater effort, and
a longer time, than the expeditious punishments of the lash, the douche
bath, the dungeon, and other similar inflictions; but the most recal-
citrant yield to it in the end; and — -a material consideration — without
any waste of the prisoner's inward moral forces, but rather a toning up
and strengthening of his entire moral being.
With a view of having a number of moral punishments, there have be\}n
introduced into the penitentiary of Neufchatel a number of moral re-
wards and encouragements. The withdrawal of these latter constitutes
a punishment far more sensibly felt, and therefore far more efficacious,
than the rigors of the old regime. It would be difficult, if not impos-
sible, to enumerate all the rewards held out to win back the prisoners to
virtue's paths, for they are often suggested by special tastes and desires,
which take on an endless diversity of forms, tiome of them, however,
may be named, which will serve to giv^e an idea of their variety. They
are : 1. Promotion, speedy if deserved, from class to class. 2.
The privilege of apprenticeship to an interesting trade, such as lith-
ography, book-binding, or any other that may be preferred. 3. Increase
of the proportion of earnings. 4. Permission to use a part of these in
the purchase of books, popular illustrated journals, scientific and lit-
' erary, engravings to adorn their cells, and tools wherewith to occupy
themselves in their own time. 5. Permission to wear a watch, or have
a thermometer. G. Permission to wear their beard. 7. Permission to
cultivate flowers and vegetables in the little garden of their exercise-
yards, and, by consequence, to have flowers in their cells, and oil and
vinegar for salad. 8. Permission to receive the visits of their relatives
in the office of the director, and not in the prisoners" conversation-room.
222 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
9. More frequeut leave to write letters to their friends. 10. Perinission
to purchase articles of clothing, for example, cravats, to wear on Sun-
day. (Under this head Dr. Guillaume expressed a hope that the time
might come when the superior class should have, on Sunday, a special
suit of clothes, including leather shoes — clogs only being now i^ermitted
by the rules — thereby contributing not only to their comfort, but to their
self-respect and personal dignity.) 11. Permission to learn to play on
the zitliare, a small musical instrument, of thirty cords, making so little
noise that it is scarcely heard in the adjoining cells. 12. The privilege
oi" choosing books for themselves out of the prison library. 13. To draw,
(especially to make mathematical drawings.) 14. To read the technical
journals taken by the administration. 15. Admission to positions of
trust ; for instance, in the distribution of meals, in the bureau, and in
other services of the house, as temporary aids. IG. Permission to super-
intend the apprenticeship of fellow-prisoners in the middle class.
Long and noble as this catalogue is, a grave omission is observable
in it.
Abbreviation of the term of imprisonment is nof among the incen-
tives held out to the prisoners of theNeufchatel penitentiary to (piicken
their endeavors toward a better life. Yet nothing is so sweet to the
human mind, nothing is so much coveted by it, as liberty ; and nothings
therefore, presents so i^owerfal a motive to exertion as .the hope of
shortening the period of captivity, if only for a few days ; how much
more when the term is months, or even years. Dr. Guillaume is quite
sensible of this, and hopes, as all must, that Switzerland will not have
to wait long for this great step in prison reform.
Among the encouragements there is also one (not set down in the
above enumeration) which I cannot approve, and which will not be ap-
proved by my countrymen ; but it is in accordance with European
(continental) sentiment and usage. It is permission to occupy Sunday
afternoon in small industries on their own account, such as embroidery,
(broderie,) the coloring of engravings, the manufacture of little wooden
baskets, ^c. This is contrary to American and English ideas of the
sanctity of the Sabbath; and we think we draw our ideas from the
word of God, which we regard as the ultimate standard of faith and
morals.
The withholding of the rewards and favors accorded to prisoners are
the i)unishments employed when the private exhortations of the director
pro<luce no result. Admonition, kindly exhortation, the appeal to honor
and manhood, are the first jninishments, if that is not in this case a mis-
nomer, and they are sufficient in a great number of cases. If there is a
repetition of transgression, the withdrawal of a reward follows, and that
is chosen whose loss will be most sensibly felt by the prisoner. Here in-
divi(hiali/ation, as a matter of course, comes in. If the prisoner shows
hlnisclf submissive, if lie ieels that he is justly punished, and if he con-
ducts himself in an exemplary manner for some time, the punishment
(biases, and lie again enters into the possession of the forfeited privilege.
Permission to wear the beard is a privilege greatly prized. Uence,
the jjunishnicnt which coiisists in a removal of this token of manhood is
])roj)ortioiially (headed. Tlie simple threat to cause a ])risoner to be
shaved for an ofli'tise is, in inaiiy cases, enough to ])revent a repetition
of it. ()th(!rs arc less sensitiv(i on this point. It is necessary to indi-
vidualize, and not — such is the opinion of Dr. (luillaiime — humUiate^Uw
])rison<'r. Thepuiiislimcntslioiild in noease wound his si^If-respect, which
he never wholly loses, though at limes it sinks to a very low plane.
This sentiment rises in the prisoner in pro[)ortion to the esteem whieh'is.
PENITENTIARY OF NEUCHATEL. ' 223
shown bim ; and it is, above all, when called npon to i)unisli him, that we
should never forget that lie is a man, our brother. In making him feel
this, he will comprehend his own responsibility, and a feeling of shame
will be awakened in his breast. This sentiment is feeble at first, but it
grows and strengthens in jiroportion as the work of reformation advances.
It is this vital fact which explains why, in the penitentiary of Neufchatel,
there is neither corporal punishment, nor chains, nor prison garb, nor
gens d'arms, nor armed or even uniformed oflicials. The constant en-
deavor is to place the prisoners in conditions similar to those which are
found in respectable mechanics' families, where labor, order, economy,
and intellectual recreations are held in esteem.
An effective school is maintained in the prison, on one of whose ses-
sions it was my pleasure to attend. It is divided into three classes, and,
so far, is upon the model of the ordinary primary schools of the country.
The average attendance for the year has been, in the lowest class, ten :
in the middle, thirteen ; in the highest, lifteen. All the other prisoners
receive lessons in their cells. A schoolmaster devotes his whole time
to the work of instruction. Admission to the school is made a recom-
pense of good conduct, and is found to be a strong stimulus to such con-
duct. To all such, admission is an occasion of rejoicing and a source of
satisfaction. A withdrawal of its privileges, for ever so short a time, is
felt as a punishment. On entering the school, a written examination
takes place, and this is repeated at the end of each month. The pupils
are classilied by its results. The order of the examination is as follows :
1. Date. 2. Name of prisoner. 3. An. exercise in reading. 4. Solution
of a pi'oblem in arithmetic, o. Geography, questions and answers. 6.
History, same. 7. Composition, on a subject assigned or freely selected.
S. Dictation of several sentences.
The branches taught are reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, his-
tory, and the natural sciences. Each lesson begins with the reading of
a piece selected from a school-book used in the i)ublic schools of the
country. The piece to be read is announced at a previous school session,
so that the i)upils may prepare themselves to ask the schoolmaster ques-
tions on the subject to which it relates. He solves their difflculties, and
adds such comments as he deems fit. He then gives oral lessons in geogra-
phy, history, &c. — lessons which have been suggested by the piece read, or
the questions asked. The endeavor is alwa^^s, as much as possible, to
give the* practical side of things, so as the better to awaken the interest
of the learners. The problems given in arithmetic and geometry are
invariably such as admit of an immediate application.
As soon as they have arrived at the point where they are able to do
so, the pupils are expected to keep a journal, in which, among other
records, they give a summary of the leSson of each day, and some of
these abridged statements are read at every school session. I was
greatly interested in the compositions of this kind which were read on
the day of my visit, all of which were on the subject of glass, giving an
account of its elements, manufacture, uses, history-, &c., &c. They gave
token both of the thorough manner in which the teacher had imparted
his instructions, and of the close attention with which they had been
listened to by his convict scholars.
On every Sunday morning, the hour Immediately preceding divine
service is devoted to a lecture by the director on whatever subject he
may choose to address his audience, which is composed of all the em-
ployes and jirisoners of the establishment. His range of topics is wide^
including biographies of celebrated men sprung from the ranks of the
people, (Benjamin Franklin, John Bright,) philanthropists, (John How-
224 INTERIsATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONCxRESS.
arcl, Florence Xiglitingale,) striking events of the day, (the arbitration
at Geneva,) new inventions and discoveries, (the electric telegraph, the
microscope, the mowing-machine,) questions of a literary or scientific
character, geography, history, astromomy; everything, in short, which
constitutes a human interest or contributes to human progress. Before
the lecture commences. Dr. Guillaume is accustomed, for a few moments,
to pass in review the general conduct of the prisoners, and to give them
his thoughts on lying, on idleness, on want of cleanliness, on indifterence,
on levity of character, ou impoliteness, on thoughtlessness, on inatten-
tion to order, or some other of the numerous points embraced under the
general designation of minor morals. In the afternoon of Sunday the
prisoners are required to write compositions, either on the subject of
the morning's lecture or on some other topic given out in class. As
further subjects of composition, there are distributed copies of some
engraving-^" Our Father w^hich art in Heaven," or some other; and
they may then exercise themselves in a description of the engraving,
and in expressing their sentiments on what it represents. These com-
positions are compared, their relative merits weighed, and the best of them
selected for insertion in a little autographic journal, of which some account
must now be given. This is a paper under the title of Travaux d'Bcole,
{School- Woric,) edited and published in the penitentiary every fortnight.
Each number occupies four pages of square letter-paper, (large size,)
and is illustrated by one or several pictures, the whole lithographed by
the prisoners. It contains compositions, puzzles, arithmetical i^roblems
and their solutions, &c., mostly by the convicts, moral and instructive
sentences, selected from eminent authors, and a variety of other matters.
One needs but to glance at a few numbers of this unique journal to sat-
isfy himself that the educative and reformatory power embodied in it
must be great indeed.
As a still further encouragement to diligence in learning, there are
distributed at the end of every month, after the customary ex.amination,
engravings, books, crayons, &c., to those who have distinguished them-,
selves.
Each class has an hour in school daily, and those who are in cellular
confinement receive also the daily visit of the teacher. This is especially
the case with the new-comers and the abecedarians. These last are not
admitted into class till they are able to follow readily the reading which
takes place there.
Tiie i)enitentiary has a library of nearly 500 volumes. The school-
master has charge of it and superintends the exchange of books. But
it is his duty not to i)ormit an exchange till he has satisfied himself that
the applicant has really read the book he is returning, and has profited
by it. The prisoner who wishes- to be sure of receiving a new book
writes in his journal a resume of hifi reading, and copies the passages
which have most interested him by their sentiments or their style. In
this manner the mon; zealous come at liMigth lo find themselves in posses-
sion of a collcclioii of maxims, sentences, i)ithy sayings, proverbs, and the
like, drawn from Hie authois wlioin they have read.
In the visits which J)r. (iiiillaume is accustomed frequently to make
to the school room, he takes occasion to ask one and another what book
he is reading at tin; time, and he requin's the prisoner so interrogated to
give him some account of it. This suggests reilections on the manner of
reading books so as to derive the greatest advantage from them ; and
the observations addressed to one become i)iolitable to all.
The journal is not, strictly speaking, obligatory ; but all know that to
have one is to conform lo Hie director's desire. It is simply a copy-book.
THE PENITENTIARY OF NEUCHAtEL. 225
in wliicli the prisoner sets clown each day what be has done, and the re-
flections suggested by his reading, his lessons, &c.; also his observations
on the weather and the periodic phenomena of the plants in his garden,
on the trees of the neighboring forest, the birds which he hears sing, the
visits made to him, the letters received or sent, the sermon of Sunday,
the visitors seen in the chapel, &c., &c.
The schoolmaster is reqnired to submit to the director a monthly re-
port of the condition of the school and the progress of the scholars.
One of these, in manuscript, was placed in my hands, and now lies be-
fore me. It is a curious and instructive record. Eleven prisoners had
been admitted to the school during the month. The result of their in-
itial examination showed that one only had a tolerable primary educa-
tion ; the other ten, bad, reading and writing with difficulty. Nine had
left the school, their term of sentence having expired. Of these, the
'primary education of two -was good ; of two, tolerable ; of five, bad. The
two noted as good had been four months in attendance ; the others were
short-term prisoners, correctionals. The distribution of the school into
classes was : In the inferior, 18; in the middle, 18 ; in the superior, 11;
total, 47. The number of weekly lessons given to each class was 6 ; total,
18. The course of study for the month liad included, in geography, the
principal mountains, valleys, rivers, and lakes of Switzerland, its differ-
ent cantons and capitals, the products of its soil and industry ; in
Swiss history, the leading events of the fourteenth and sixteenth centu-
ries; in inventions, the telegraph; in arithmetic, numerous practical
problems, with the bearing of eacli, and exercises in class. The master
further reports that he has examined the summaries made by the pris-
oners of the contents of the books read by them during each week, and
that the result of the usual monthly examination had been, upon the
whole, satisfactory. The subjects of .the pieces read in class, and of the
compositions written on them, are reported as glass, porcelain, clothing,
mountain birds, the cork-tree, consumption of alcoholic drinks in Eng-
land and the canton of Berne, statistics of intemperance and consider-
ations upon it ; petroleum, and the quantity exported from America ;
different systems of lighting, &c., &c. Thirty hours are reported as
having been devoted to giving lessons in the cells. He puts down as
the subjects of Dr. Guillaume's Sunday lectures for the month : August
4, An account of his voyage from NeufchTitel to England in a geograph-
ical point of view, means of communication by railway and steamer ;
August 11, Interesting fragments from Macaulay's History ; August
18, Miss Mary Carpenter and her labors ; August 25, Climates, with a
picture showing the plants and animals of the different zones. The re-
jiort embraces other points which I omit, and closes with a hearty
tribute to the diligence, zeal, interest, and good conduct of his convict
pupils.
I was anxious to ascertain whether the public opinion of the prison
could be so developed and directed that it might be made to react ef-
fectively upon the prisoners as one of the governing forces of the estab-
lishment. On this point I interrogated Dr. Guillaume closely, and his
account of the matter was substantially as follows : He conceives that
such as are the employes, such will be the prisoners ; that if the former
comprehend their mission, possess the necessary tact, and make them-
selves respected by their conduct and their conscientious industry, (for
they are required to work no less than the prisoners,) the latter will imi-
tate them in well-doing, and all will contribute and unite their influence
in maintaining the order and discipline of the establishment. Conse-
quently, his first care is directed to the officers. To develop their inter-
H. Ex. 185 15
226 INTEKNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
est in the work, he holds frequent reunions of the foremen and other
employes, and gives them familiar lectures, or, as he styles them, confer-
ences^ on the history of penitentiary reform, on the various systems em-
ployed to effect the reformation of criminals, and on the duties of per-
sons charged with so high and responsible a function. These conferences
have for object the familiarizing of the employes with the service, and
especially with the spirit which has dictated its rules and regulations.
In making apparent to their apprehension how great and noble is the
mission of laboring for the reformation and future well-being of their
fallen brethren, the employes, if they have the necessary aptitudes, be-
gin to comprehend how important is the part which they are called to
play, and by degrees they come to realize the dignity of being respon-
sible agents, and to feel a pride in their work. They no longer look
upon themselves as mere turnkeys and jailers, but rather as guides,
teachers, trainers, who must, above all, preach by their example. They*
have, severally, at heart the good order and discipline of their ward —
that is, of the prisoners who are placed under their special care. Emu-
lation develops itself among them, and they seek to rival each other in
zeal for order, decorum, good manners, politeness, industry, &c. Each
one is anxious to have the cleanest and most orderly ward, and the best
arranged, best kept, most industrious, and most successful workshop.
As regards the penitentiary public, this esprit de corps makes itself
equally felt, insomuch that it produces in all the employes a desire to
maintain the good repute of the establishment. The penitentiary is for
them their family.
At the last industrial exhibition in the canton the penitentiary coopers
obtained a medal, and the gardeners a prize, since which time there haa
been established a traditional reputation, which will doubtless be main-
tained, for the prisoners have become imitators of the keepers in their
esprit de corps. On the occasion of the exhibition, the prisoners were
anxious to prove to the public that they knew how to work, and that in
due time they would be worthy to re-enter society. The press, on tins oc-
casion, indulged in a variety of criticisms, but the public showed itself
favorable to the introduction of industrial occupations into the prison,
and the admission of the products of prison labor to this general expo-
sition of agricultural and mechanical industry.
Owing to the sagacious and comprehensive combinations of Dr. Guil-
laume, as explained above, the public oi)inion of the prisoners is such that
it exercises a strong power of control over them. Often, by their remon-
strances and tlicir inlluence, they repress the evil thoughts whicli occa-
sionally show tliiMiiselves in one or another of their comrades. Among
the motives impelling them to act in so i)raiseworthy a manner is the
fear of forfeiting or lessening the fair reputation which may have been
Avon by their shoj). ]Jr. Ouillanme exi)lained, and seemed very desirous
that 1 should comi)rehend, that, in speaking of evil purposes formed by
individual jirisoners an<l suppressed by the force of i)ublic opinion, he
alluded to trivial oiTeiises — nu^i-e breaches of discipline — for they never
had had cases of gioss insubordination, revolt, aiul the like — cases which,
indeed, they had eoiiKi to regard as of almost imi»ossible occurrence.
Various hooks of record, in addition to ac^c.ouiits-curn'nt, are kept by
the author ties, iu which an', noted different classes of facts relating to
the ]»ris!;n« rs. 1 propose to make; but l)rief reference to oidy a, portion
of tin III. One contains the most complete statement attainable. Whether
fiom the prisoner himself or from tiiisrwortiiy jiersous in the locality
from which lie came, of his antecedents, chara<*ter, haltits, occupation,
relations, \:\\\\v of the ]iif»per1y stolen, if his crime was theft, c^c, «S:c^
THE PENITENTIARY OF NEUCHATEL.
227
Another opens a moral account with him, in which a contiDuous record
is kept, month by mouth, of his conduct, industry, and habits of study,
according to the following form :
Names.
Month of .
Conduct. Industry.
School.
Total of marks.
9
6
Earnin<i;s.
A
3
2
3
2
3
2
3/. 60c.
2/. 80c.
B
A column is added for general remarks. The marks are settled, as
already explained, in the general conference of officers at the end of
each month.
In addition to this there is for every prisoner a file or bundle of papers,
(dossier,) in which are found : 1. The charge, sentence, «S:c., of the court.
2. Official and confidential information obtained relative to the prison-
er's antecedents. 3. A short account of his life, written by himself or
at his dictation. 4. The result of his scholastic examination on entrance.
5. A monthly transcript from the moral-account book and the punish-
ment record. 6. His photographic likeness when committed. 7. Good
or bad facts relating to his conduct. 8. His photograph on leaving the
prison. 9. Facts relating to the aid given him at his discharge, [son
;patyonage,) and his conduct after liberation.
The cantine* does not exist in the penitentiary of Neufchatel, nor is it
in contemplation to introduce it. It is believed there that such an in-
stitution must end in demoralizing both officers and prisoners, and that
therefore the fixed dietary of the prison ought to be made sufficient to
satisfy all fit and reasonable wants.
During the few days I passed at jSTeufchatel I mingled freely with the
prisoners, conversing with them ad libitum without the presence of an
officer. I found the best spirit and the best state of feeling existing
among them. Of not a few the love to Dr. Guillaume seemed like
that of children to a father. I verily believe that tbere are pris-
oners in that penitentiary whom this feelingVould hold tbere as with
chains of steel, if every bolt were removed, and every door set wide
open, thus proving again the truth of Dr. Wicheru's paradox, that " the
strongest wall is no wall."
It will be asked. What about the earnings in a prison which seems so
much like a university, and where every thought, contrivance, and
eflbrt appear to be given to the reformation of the convicts "? I am
happy to reply that they are nearly enough to meet all the current ex-
penses of the establishment, and, in all probability, will reach that
point in time. They are greater to-day, man for man, than in any other
l)enitentiary establishment in Switzerland.
Another and still more important question is: What reformatory
results are shown f To this question I make answer : The experiment
is yet in its early infancy. At the time of my visit, scarcely two years
had elapsed since the accession of Dr. Guillaume. In the most remark-
*Thi8 is found in all French and perhaps most other continental prisons. It raay he
described, in the most general terms, as a privilege of purchasing additional comforts,
not included in the legal rations, with the prisoner's disposable pccuUutn — that Is, such
part of his earnings as he may spend while still in prison.
228 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
able and most successful experiment in prison discipline that perhaps
the world has ever seen — that of Colonel Montesinos in Spain — which
finally brought down the recommittals from 40 per cent, to zero, no visi-
ble results, as far as statistics are concerned, were shown till after the
completion of the third year. As regards Dr. Guillaume's experiment,
if he does not in the end bring down the percentages of relapses glori-
ously, reformatory prison discipline must be a delusion ; those who seek
to inaugurate it are chasing a bubble ; and the best thing society can
do will be to hang, shoot, or decapitate every man whom it can catch
and prove to have committed a crime.
§ 2. Beformatorles in Switzerland. — Most of the Swiss cantons seem
well provided with juvenile reformatory institutions, of which, however,
the time at my command permitted me to see but one, and of that to
take but a cursory glance. It is an agricultural colony or reform school,
two miles from Berne, conducted on the family plan, with twelve boys
in each household, under a house-father. The establishment appeared
to me well kept in every respect, and the appearance and tone of the
inmates excellent. Eesults good, few of the' boys returning to crime.
Cn A PTEE XXXIII.
PERSONAL INSPECTION OF PRISONS IN GERMANY.
§ 1. German convict-prisons. — Of these my limited time and the press-
ure of duties belonging to the leading department of my mission allowed
of an inspection of but three — the Moabeit prison, at Berlin, Prussia;
the prison of Briichsal, Baden ; and the prison at JMunich, Bavaria,
formerly under the care of the celebrated Obermaier — all of them among
the most renowned of the penal establishments of the empire.
(a) The convict-prison at Berlin. — My <listinguished friend Baron von
Holtzendorff' and the illustrious Dr. Wicheru being both absent from
Berlin at the time of my visit, I was compelled to make my inspection of
this prison alone. The Moabeit is a prison constructed on the panoptic
or radiating cellular plaii, with four wings and five hundred and
eight cells, besides underground workshops sufficient for one hundred
and fifty men, and a farm, at some distance from the prison, to give
employment to those prisoners who, on account of bad health, age, or
length of sentence, cannot serve out their entire term in separation.
The i)rison is managed by a Protestant brotherhood, called the Brethren
of the Itauhe Uaus, and trained, therefore, by Dr. Wichern for the
work of the Inner Mission. The average of relapses is about 13 per cent.
Though having no j)ermit fi'om an oflicial source, I was received with
much court(^sy by the director, a gentleman of great benevolence of
character, l)ut unfortunately knowing nothing of English, French,
Spanish, or Italian, a cataloging, which exhausted my own powers of
speech. Jle began by showing me a complete set of drawings which
exhibited tiie ])ris()n in all its i)arts, and, being in a universal language,
were readily comprehended. Ho then conduct(ul me through the estab-
lislitncint, entering at least fifteen to twenty cells, where I had an oppor-
tunity of seeing the i>risoners at their dilferent occui)ations. These
were (piite various, and embracc^d lithograjthing, engraving, carving in
wood, &c. "J'lie manner of Iiis interc(»iirs(; witli the prisoners pleased
me exceedingly, marked ;is it was l)y a gentle and kindly si)irit, with
CONVICT PRISONS AT BERLIN BRUCIISAL. 229
notLin,2f of official stiflfiiess. The visit was in all cases coiuiiieiiced
by a IViendly greeting, and oa leaving the director bade each one
adieu, with sometimes au added handshake. As we passed along he
explained everything iu German, just as if I had understood a word of
it! The prison I found kept in the neatest manner; the prisoners had
a cheerful look ; every cell (for we peeped into many which we did not
enter) seemed a little home of solitary industry; material wants were
well provided for; and the director was evidently a favorite with the in-
mates. Beyond this I cannot go. It was the shell only that I saw.
Visiting prisons with no power of intercommunication is but a sorry
and certainly a most unsatisfactory business.
(&.) The convict-prison at Bruchsal. — This is the model cellular peniten-
tiary of Germany, and the oldest, having been opened in 1848. Like
the Moabeit, at Berlin, it is on the radiating plan with four wings. The
number of cells is four hundred and eight. A model prison itself, it has
a model director in Herr Ekert, whose administration combines, in ad-
mirable proportions, justice with mercy, firmness with humanity, and
breadth of scope with a minute attention to details.
Most of the German states have three, many of them four, differ-
ent kinds of public punishment. Punishment of the highest degree,
awarded of course to the highest crimes, is condemnation to the zucht-
halts, (house of correction.) Prisoners so sentenced lose their civil
rights. The maximum sentence is for life; the minimum, two years.
The second degree is termed arbeitshaus, (work-house.) Condemnation
to this punishment varies from a few months to several years, but it
does not extinguish municipal rights. As its names implies, it involves
compulsory labor the same as the zuclithaus. The third degree is called
gefcingness, (jail.) This sentence does not make labor obligatory, but
allows " occupation in accordance with the social position and ability of
the prisoner."' A fourth kind of punishment — it can hardly be named a
degree — is termed festung, (imi)risonment iu a fortress.) It is a punish-
ment awarded to gentlemen olienders ; mostly in cases of political crime
or dueling.
But I seem to hear the inquiry, What has all this to do with the peni-
tentiary of Bruchsal ? Not much, perhaps, but at least this : Formerly
the establishment at Bruchsal united in itself two prisons, the zucht haus
and the arheitshaus. The i)risoners of each class were in nearly equal
numbers, and, though nominally under different rules, were both subjected
to the same system of absolute isolation. But the system of mixing
the two classes has been abolished. None but the higher criminals are
received at present, so that the penitentiary has become strictly a con-
vict-prison. Although the system is intended to be rigorously cel-
lular, there is a department of the prison, called the " auxiliary estab-
lishment," where association is permitted to the following classes of
prisoners: 1. Those who have been in cellular separation six years,
unless they elect to remain in isolation. 2. Old men who have passed
the age of seventy. 3. Prisoners adjudged not fit for cellular sei)ara-
tion on account of the state of their health, bodily or mental. There
were some twenty or thirty persons in the auxiliary establishment when
I was at Bruchsal, out of a total of 384. In point of fact, not more than
an average of nine per cent, are detained for periods exceediug four
years. Though a zealous supporter of the separate system, Mr. Ekert
states, in one of his reports, that after three years of cellular confine-
ment the muscular fiber becomes remarkably Meakened, and that, after
that, to require hard work would be tantamount to requiring au im-
possibility.
230 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
Mr. Ekert conducted me through every part of his admirably arranged
and admirably managed establishment, and explained the multiplied
details of its organization and working. I cannot stay to repeat his
statements at any length. The different occupations of the prisoners
run up to eighteen or twenty. Every prisoner learns a trade, who was
not master of one before his committal. To some extent the prisoner's
own preference is consulted, but the great study is to give him a trade
that will enable him to earn an honest living after his discharge. It
may be stated here that while only three or four per cent, of the con-
victs are wholly illiterate wbeu received, more than half had not learned
a trade. They are encouraged and incited to diligence bj^ being allowed
to share in the product of their toil. Two chaplains are employed, one
for the Catholic, the other for the Protestant prisoners, who severally hold
service twice on Sunday and once on Wednesday, besides doing abun-
dant pastoral work in the cells. Two schoolmasters also devote their
whole time to the work of scholastic instruction in the cells. An annual
examination of the prison pupils takes place, (the interval is certainly too
long,) at which premiums are distributed to the deserving, consisting of
books, copies for drawing, tools, &c., &c. Upon the whole, the training,
schooling, industrial employment, and religious care of the convicts ap-
peared to me to be in a satisfactory condition.
The superior officers meet every day in the office of the director for
conference, when they make report of their respective observations for
the last twenty-four hours, and take counsel together for the future.
(c.) The convict-prison at Munich. — This penitentiary, placed a little
outside of the city, was the scene of Councilor Obermaier's labors, who,
however, long since — more than twenty years, I think — retired from it;
but he still lives, a vigorous and honored octogenarian. I called at his
residence in Munich, with the great infelicitj' of finding that he had
gone to spend a month in the Bavarian Alps ; and so I missed seeing
the man whom, of all others living, I should most desire to converse
with, since Maconochie and Montesinos have both been called to their
reward.
Mr. Petersen, who was a delegate from the Bavarian government to
the congress, accompanied me to the prison. We found (which was
another disappointment) that Mr. Mess, also a Bavarian government
delegate to the congress, who is the present director, had departed on
leave only the day before. We were, however, courteously received by
the sub-director and chaplain, the former of whom coiulucted us through
the establishment, giving all needful explanations.
The prison was originally' a monastery, and has been adapted to its
])res(^nt use. It is of great extent, but extremely irregular. Every part
Avas found to be clean, sweet, and in good order. There are fifty-seven
celis for s(q)arate iminisonment, all but two having occu])!ints the day I
was there. Jicyond that the estal)lishment is on the congregate plan.
The entire ca|)acity is for five hundred and fifty; there were four hun-
dred and ninety-niiu} at the time of my visit. It is a convict-prison,
{niaiHon deforce,) and none are admitted but those sentenced to hard
labor, {fravav.rj'orcea.) In Obermaier's time, and since, sentences were
jrom five years to life. Now the shortest are for one year. There were
fifty-two life-])risoners. Most of those who have this sentence die in
])rison; few ever icci-ivc a i)anlon.
(Jontrabimd traHH;, <'S]KM;iaIly in tobacico, is tin; offense oI'Lenest com-
mitted. 'I'Ik; puiiishnients are reprimands, diminution of rations, ])ri-
vation of peciilinn), eonlinenient in a cell, the «bingiu)n, and, in bad
cases, irons. Cor[>oral punislunent has be(Mi abolished since 18(11. It
CONVICT AND DETENTION PRISONS AT MUNICH. 231
ds gratifying to know tliat since its abolishment the number of offenses
;lias greatly diminished. Prior to its prohibition the prisoners — so it
was reported to me — were in a constant state of irritation, and opea
revolt was not infrequent. Since then nothing of the kind has occurred.
The prisoners are tranquil and docile. School is held daily for two
hours. There are six classes, and each class receives two hours' school-
ing per week. Better would it be to double the dose. The branches
taught are those common in primary schools, with a little chemistry and
natural science superadded. The progress made is fair.
As in Baden, the prisoners nearly all know how to read when com-
mitted; but the greater part have not learned a trade. The industries
liursued in the prison are many, including lithography, book-binding,
shoemaking, spinning, weaving, painting, carpentry, &c., besides do-
mestic labors and other work for the establishment, in which thirty-
eight prisoners find employment. The net earnings in 1871 amounted
to $11,977, which was considerably more than sufficient to meet a fourth
of the expenses.
The prisoners sleep as well as work in association. Obermaier had a
strange liking for this system, and no doubt his extraordinary genius
for controlling bad men and molding them to his will enabled him to
overcome many of the evils inseparable from it. It is, however, in-
herently and ineradicably vicious, and is now condemned by the com-
mon judgment of the world.
The prisoners take their dinner at 11 a. m., after which they are per-
mitted to amuse themselves in the large courts or yards of the prison
till 1 p. m. They are supervised by keepers during this hour and a half,
but otherwise are quite unrestrained. Passing through the different
courts, I observed that all were perfectly well-behaved. They conversed
freely together and engaged in a variety of amusements, but without
tumult, disorder, or anything approaching to nnseemly or excessive
noise.
I made special inquiry as to the influence of so unusual an indulgence,
and the answer received was substantially as follows : At their prom-
enade in the coUrts, the prisoners are allowed all possible liberty. They
choose their company and their subjects of conversation as they see fit.
This system, far from being attended with evil consequences, is found
preferable to that which forbids all converse. Down to 1862, this prohi-
bition had effect. But obedience to such a rule was found impossible to
be enforced, and its infraction drew after it a multitude of punishments
whose only effect was to harden even the better prisoners, and to paralyze
the softening influences of the school and the church. Nevertheless, to
guard against the evil which might be done by the worse to the better
prisoners, the former are excluded from these collective recreations, and
are required to take their exercise in separate yards, which is a quiet
but powerful means of maintaining order and preventing excesses in
the associated courts.
§ 3. Detention prison at Munich. — After inspecting the convict-prison,
Mr. Petersen and myself made a short visit to the detention prison, in
the city, for the confinement of persons awaiting trial or transfer after
conviction and sentence. This is a new prison, opened two years ago.
It is upon the cellular plan, as all prisons of this kind ought to be, with
accommodations for fifty men and fifteen to twenty women. A very few
receive short sentences to this prison, but they are quite exceptional
cases. It is not intended as a punishing prison, but simply a prison for
safe custody. Labor is not exacted, but such as have a trade are per-
■mitted to work at it as far as there is opportunity, and are entitled to
232 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
-whatever tliey earn. It is truly a model prison of its class. I was pleased
■with the director and particularly with his wife, whom I found intelli-
gent, cultivated, amiable, and deeply interested in the future of the
prisoners.
§ 3. Patronage of discharged prisoners in Bavaria. — The work of aiding
discharged prisoners is admirably organized in this little kingdom. On
leaving the detention prison, we drove to an asylum or refuge for lib-
erated i^risouers, who, on discharge, have been recommended for aid by
directors of prisons to the jiatronage society of Munich. It is a house,
with gjirden attached, having accommodations for fourteen men and ten
women, the two sexes occupying distinct jiarts of the establishment and
being wholly separated from each other. A porter and his wife are in
charge, by whom everything is kept in perfect cleanliness and order, thus
giving the place an attractive and home-like air. It is simply a transi-
tional home for the inmates, bridging over the chasm between the prison
and steady work. While waiting for this latter, the ex-prisoners either
busy themselves with odd jobs obtained in the city, or in working for
the house — splitting wood, making shoes, cultivating the garden, &c.
There were but three in the refnge when visited by me, and they were
all employed on city jobs. Their average stay in the home is about twa
■weeks.
I had the pleasure of attending one of the sessions of the committee
of the patronage or aid society of Munich, and was greatly interested in
the proceedings. The business was conducted with much animation,
amid a generous tiow of Bavarian beer. The speeches were interpreted
to me by a Dr. Strauss, and interested me greatly, particularly those on'
a rather novel application, which created considerable merriment, asking'!
for money to enable the applicant to get married.
It will, I think, be worth while to go a little into detail on the organi-
zation and work of the Munich society and the general question of
patronage in Bavaria. The aid society of Munich was formed in 1860,
having for its object the moral improvement and material well-being of
liberated prisoners who are citizens of Munich. It makes no distinction
in respect of ag^, sex, or religion, but gives special attention to young
persons of both sexes. It has a capital, including the refnge before de-
scribed, of 10,000 florins. Its receipts in 1871 were: subscribed and
paid by members, 1,580 florins ; api)ropriation by the state, 750 florins;
interest on cai)ital, balance from 1870, &c., 940 florins ; total, 3,270 florins.
It has a membership of 1,550, composed of ladies as well as gentlemen.
Each member must pay 30 kreutzers a year. Larger contributions are
received from many, bnt they are free-gifts. The society holds only
an annual meeting, but a committee consisting of forty-two members
meets every Mon«lay night. The following is the order of business : 1.
It de]i))erates on the reports sent from directors of prisons, giving infor-
mation tliat such and such i)risoners are to be discharged, and also in re-
lation to tiuiir character. 2. It considers and decides on the admission
of thes<'. ])risoiier8 to ]iatronage. 3. It chooses from among the mem-
bers of the society gnardians to take charge of sncii i)ris()iM'rs as are ac-
cepted. 4. It (!on.si<l<'rs commnnications sent in by guardians, relating
to the condnct of their wards, and decides ujion the assistance to be
given to theses latlei-, 5. It acts on any financial ((iiestions that may
arise,
I'lie special dnties of a guardian ai(^ : 1. To maintain a constant and
j»atern:il v.-iitcli('iihiess over his ward. 2, To procure for him remuner-
ative work, and lo Ix- his prot<'ctor. 3. To ])i'ovi(ie for him clothing,
AID SOCIETIES IN BAVARIA. 233'
tools, money needed to travel in looking for work, and even, wlien occa-
sion requires, to furnish him with lodgings.
Each ward has his special guardian who watches over him, counsels
him, supplies his most pressing wants, takes charge of any money ap-
]>ropriated by the society for his use, and, if there be a necessity, en-
deavors to effect a reconciliation between him and his family.
The results are scarcely such as would have been expected from so
much labor and care. Of the 1,182 persons who have been received as
wards of the society since 18G0, 377 have relapsed ; 1G2 have withdrawn
themselves from all supervision ; 201 are doubtful ; 27 have died, and
352 have undergone a radical change, and become completely reformed
iu principle and life.
In the province of which Munich is the capital city there are twenty-
five districts. Societies similar to that of Munich are found in the
chief cities of thirteen of them, and steps have been taken to organize like
associations in the other twelve. These local societies are iu all respects
formed upon the model furnished by the society of Munich. Each is in-
dependent, yet all have iu the committee at Munich, as it were, a cen-
tral organ, which forms a bond of union between them, awakens mutual
sympathies, makes them feel that they have common interests, and oc-
casionally even advances funds, which are sometimes deficient iu country
organizations.
Bavaria embraces eight provinces — seven besides that of whicli
Munich is the capital. The greater part of the chief cities of these have
also their patronage societies, and very many of the small towns as
well — some sixty in all ; so that, including those in the metropolitan:
province, Bavaria, with a population scarcely, if at all, exceeding that
of New York, has at least eighty prisoners' aid societies, all of them
organized on the plan of that at Munich, even to the holding of weekly
meetings on Monday night. The state encourages these associations
with small grants of money for their work; but the most effective aid
they have consists iu this, that, six weeks in advance of the liberation
of a convict, every prison gives information of this fact and of his
character to the association which takes charge of its prisoners. The
chief obstacle encountered by these associations is the distrust of the
public and the prejudices which it feels and shows against contact with
liberated prisoners ; above all, when they have been thieves. To over-
come these i>rejudices is one of the great duties which the aid societies
impose upon themselves ; and they have been to a great degree suc-
cessful, particularly in Munich.
A month or six weeks before their liberation it is quite common for
prisoners to write to the director of the prison a letter asking him to
address in their favor a communication to the committee of such or such
an aid society. In communicating such a request to a society, the
director at the same time gives it all desirable information touching the
conduct of the prisoner during the whole term of his imprisonment; on
his occupation in prison ; on the change which his treatment has effected
in him, if any ; or whether he has remained incorrigible. This petition
is submitted to the decision of the committee at the first session after
its reception. But, as the committee is composed of the most respect-
able citizens of the locality, men thoughtful and prudent, they are un-
able, ordinarily, to come to a definitive decision at their first meeting,
especially as they are often ignorant of the social status of the prisoner
and of his family. In cases where the committee desire to have more
ample information, it charges one of its members with the special duty
234 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
of procnriug it. Eacli petitiou is registered, with a summary of all the
information aftbrded iu it.
That feature iu the constitution of the Bavarian aid societies by
■which a special guardian or protector is assigned to each liberated pris-
oner who becomes their ward, with the duties already described, is par-
ticularly worthy of notice. It is beyond all praise.
I have already mentioned my presence at one of the sessions of the
patronage society of jMunicb. A copy of the minutes of that session was
kindly furnished me through my friend Mr. Petersen. As it can hardly
fail to have interest for those who occupy themselves with penitentiary
questions, and especially for the members of prison societies, I append
a translation, despite a complimentary sentence or two of a personal
character.
Minutes of the session of 12ih August, 1872.
President, Superior Commissioner Peekert.
Mr. Petersen, prefect, presents Dr. Wines, of New York, president of the luteruatioual
Penitentiary Congress of London.
The president thinks it an occasion of congratulation to be favored Tpith the presence
of a gentleman who has displayed an activity so great and so fruitful in useful results
in respect of prison reform, and through whose agency the time cannot be far distant
when the friends of our work, on both sides of the ocean, will lend to each other a mu-
tual support by the intercommunication of their respective experiences.
Dr. Wines returns thanks for the honor done him, and says that his visit to Bavaria
is mainly for the purpose of studying the organization of patronage in this kingdom,
and making personal observation of its workings.
After tha reading of the minutes of the session of the 5th August, the president re-
marks that Joseph Tamper, who is mentioned in them, is, in the opinion of medical
men, too sick to remain under the care of the society. Thereupon, he is remitted to the
charge of the philanthropic society.
Several directors of prisons announce, l)y letter, tbe approaching liberation of : 1.
John Miinch, potter, a workman in the manufactory of Rebdorf. After having been
admitted, Mr. Auracher, member of the committee, is designated as his guardian. 2.
Catherine Miiller, single woman and laundress, aged twenty-four years, a prisoner at
Wasserbourg and a native of An, has the best of certificates. Accordingly she is ad-
mitted, and Mr. Fr. Barthelmes, hor future guardian, promises to procure her work. 3.
Mary Huber, aged twenty years, a prisoner at St. Georges, is admitted; and Mr. Ka-
vizza is named as her guardian, in case she should need the aid of the association. 4, 5,
and 6. Anna Mantel, petty thief; John Kaj)poller, an unmitigated gambler ; and John
Frey, an incorrigible vagrant, are not admitted because of their antecedents.
Louis Felser, printer, a ward of the society, asks sufficient money to defray the ex-
pense of his registry, made necessary by his approaching marriage. Several members
favored the granting of this request ; others ojjposed it. After a number of speeches,
it is resolved that, before coming to a definitive decision, iuformatiou be obtained re-
garding the character and antecedents of tiie betrothed.
Mr. JJrucktraw, a resigned member of the society, is again received as an active mem-
ber, and pays 4 florins '.iO krcutzors as a subscription.
Riciiiand, a ward of tlie society, having conducted himself in an exemplary manner
aa miller's hoy at J{aml)erg, is voted IS fi(;riiis traveling-money.
Ward Dclinoro, to (;iiable Jiim to take a situation otfered, receives two shirts, three
aprons, two rol>cs, and one l)l()iiso from the wardrol>e of the society.
The 'IVcasurcr Kinliier will have for substitute, during the time of his vacation, Mr.
•Comptroihir l{aiirhu;h(!r.
After till! reading of the present minutes the president invites our honored visitor to
kindly nflix liis signature as a souvenir of his presence among us.
E. C. Wi.M>, Secretary of the National Prison Association of the United States.
PEEKERT, Presideul.
G A M J 'E RT, Seorctary.
PRISONS OF ITALY. 235
CHAPTER XXXIV.
PELSONAL INSPECTION OF PRISONS IN ITALY.
§ 1. The prison Belle Marate. — lu company with my friend Mr. Bel-
trani-Scalia, the very intelligent, able, earnest (the better word would
be enthusiatic) inspector-general of prisons in the kingdom of Italy,
I paid a flying visit to the only prison in Florence, named as above.
It was only a glance that could be given to it, and it is but the
briefest word that can be said of it. It is not a convict prison, but may be
described, not inaccurately perhaps, as a detention prison and house of
correction combined. It is on the Auburn system — association in com-
mon workshops by day, and complete separation by night. It has five
hundred cells, and the number of inmates, September 22, 1871, was
376, of whom thirty were women. These latter are really in a distinct
prison, for it is separated from the men's prison by a public street.. Two
beautiful little girls I saw in this part of the establishment — bright as
new-coined eagles — the children of convict women. My heart was
pained and oppressed by the thought of how much that is vile and cor-
rupting they must necessarily see and hear and learn there.
The prison Delle Marate, though not a model, has good points.
Labor seemed well organized, and among the industries, I noticed, was
printing, which is one of the very best for prison inmates. Here was
printed Mr. Beltrani-Scalia's Review of Penitentiary Science, a
monthly journal of much spirit and ability, which is doing admirable
service in Italy, and, to some extent, throughout Europe, in the work of
X)rison reform. But this is a digression. The department of the prison
that most gratified me was the school, which was attended by a
hundred or more of the younger prisoners (in whose case, up to thirty-
five, I think, attendance is obligatory) and as many of the older ones as
chose. It is taught by the two chaplains, who give their whole time
to religious and scholastic instruction. A very remarkable case of
progress was brought to my notice, that of a lad who had been an inmate
of the prison for only a month. At the time of entrance he did not
know a letter of the alphabet; yet I heard him read, quite fluently, a
page in a book as difficult, I should suppose, as what we call the Sec-
ond Reader usually is. It is the most remarkable instance of rapid
acquisition that ever came within my knowledge.
§ 2. The prisons of Rome. — There are four prisons in this city, includ-
ing one for juvenile offenders. Two of these only did I visit, being ac-
companied on my inspection by Mr. Cardon, supreme director, and by
Mr. Beltrani-Scalia, inspector-general, of prisons.
(a.) The prison Delle Terme. — This establishment is accommodated in a
vast building, which was formerly a public granary, but has been altered
to adapt it to the uses of a prison, and has been used as such for fifty
years. As might be supposed, it is but ill-suited to the purpose, and is,
in many ways, very inconvenient. There were four hundred prisoners,
about forty of whom were women. Both sexes sleep in common dor-
mitories, no doubt to their further contamination. The only industry
practised by the men is weaving, at which the utmost they could earn
was five or six cents a day. The ^vomen worked at lace-making, by
which they earned four or five times as much as the men.
(&.) The prison of San Michele. — This prison is historic. Howard vis-
ited it nearly a hundred years ago, but it had a history before, most in-
teresting and instructive. Howard found over the door of San Michele
236 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
this iuscriptioii: "Clemens XI, Pont. Max., perditis adolescentibus
corrigendis instituendisqne, nt qui inertes oberaut, instruct!, reipublicse
serviant. An. Sal. MDCCIV, Pon. IV." In English: Clement XI,
Supreme Pontiff', [reared this prison] for the reformation and education
of criminal youths, to the end that those who, when idle, were hurtful
to the state, might, when better taught and trained, become useful to
it. Intheycarof our Lord, 1704; ofthe Pontiff, the Ith. Within the prison,
high up on a marble slab, inserted in the wall of the principal apart-
ment, he found this — as he rightly says — " admirable sentence :"
" Parum est improbos coercere pojua, nisi bonos efiflcias disciplina." In.
English : It is of no use to restrain criminals by punishment, unless
you reform them by discipline. In this sentence Howard found, as all
right-thinking men must find, the true aim of all just prison treatment.
In the center of the room was hung up the inscription, '' Silentium."
So that, as would appear, the silent system of associated labor, com-
bined with a reformatory discipline, was inaugurated at Rome in the
very- beginning of the eighteenth century, that is, one hundred and sixty-
nine years ago. One of the main agencies relied on to effect the de-
sired reform of the prisoners was industrial labor and the training of
them to the knowledge of a trade. Various handicrafts were taught
and practised in the establishment, such as printing, book-binding,
designing, smithery, carpentery, tailoring, shoemakiug, weaving^ dyeing,,
and the like. Surely Pope Clement XI must be allowed a place among
the most enlightened rulers and reformers that adorn the annals of our
race. On some points, the world might still go to school to him with
advantage. That such a doctrine should have been taught and such a
practice maintained in the seat of the Papacy at a time when chains,
dungeons, and toi:tures. were almost the only forms of public punish-
ment in the rest of the world, is a marvel. Let honor be given where
it is due.
At the present time the prison appears to be of rather a mongrel
sort — half cellular, half congregate. I found some four hundred pris-
soners there, some of whom were working in cells, and others in common
shops.
§ 3. The future of penitentiary reform in Italy. — While engaged, in
1871, in ray mission of organizing the congress of London, it was impos-
sible to devote much time or to go at all out of a direct line from one
capital to another (my business being chiefly with governments) to
examine prisons. I went to nearly all that fell in my way, but to
scarcely any that would require any divergence to reach them. For
this reason I had no opportunity of seeing any of the more recently-
constructed and better-organized prisons oF Italy, of which the number
is con.sideral)k>. Still, I left Italy, after a very brief sojourn, (for the
business of my mission was comi)let(Ml within twelve hours after my
arrival,) with the best imi)ressions and tlie best hopes for her future, in.
so far as the great inlcrest of ])rison reform is concerned. Mr. I^anza,
j)riiiic minister, and at the same tinu^ minister of the interior, who, in
virtue of this hitter oHice, is head of the prison administration; Mr.
(Jardon, director; and Jnsi)e('tor Jleltrani, (1 had not the honor of be-
coming personally a(;<piainted with the other insi)ector,) are gentlemen
of great ability, large views, and an earnest devotion lo this work; and
tliey are nobly seconded in it by a royal commission, comjmsed of emi-
nent citizens, having special knowledge of the subject, and appointed
expressly with a view to making a broad study of the penitentiary
question, ami |)roposing such iclorms.in the criminal code, the criminal
laws, and the (criminal administration of the coitntjy as, alter such
PRISONS OF BELGIUM. 237
study, fcliey mijilit judg-e desirable and expedient. On tliese grounds it
is not too much to hope that at no distant day Italy will become a
leader whom it will be safe to follow in whatever relates to the organi-
zation and conduct of prisons, an interest which is beginning to claim
its just place in human esteem, and to command the attention which
is due to its magnitude and its importance.
CHAPTER XXX y.
PERSONAL I^'SPECTION OF PRISONS AND REFORMATORIES IN BELGIUM.
§ 1. Belgian prisons. — Of these I inspected but three — the central
prisons of Louvain and Ghent, and the city prison at the latter of these
places.
(fl) The prison of Louvain. — This is the model cellular prison of Enrope
and the world. I paid two visits to it — one in 1871 and the other in
1872, with an admiration which no words could exaggerate. Its design,
construction, and administration, for a prison of its class and on the
cellular* plan, seemed to me to leave absolutely nothing to be desired.
More than a year ago, at a public meeting in Xew York, I said, of this
prison:
I cannot close without a word of reference to the prisons of Belgiuui, which John
Howard, a centuiy ago, found worthy of praise. At present, however, I can only call
your attention, for a moment, to the new model prison of Louvain, planned and built
under the superintendence of M. Stevens, its director for ten years, but now inspector-
general of prisons for Belgium, and a worthy successor in that office to the illustrious
Ducpetiaux. The building itself, which is large enough to accommodate five hundred
inmates, is of brick, with marble facings. It is simple, solid, and severe in its beauty,
with nothingof that palatial look which is so common in our great prisons, and which has
always seemed to me wholly out of place in buildings devoted to the treatment of crimi-
nals. But it is the fn«er "glory that excelleth." Ihadnever conceived of anythiug, in the
form of a penitentiary establishment, so admirable in organization, so perfect in admin-
istration. Nothing seems to have been forgotten in its construction, nothing overlooked
in its rules, nothing omitted in the details of its arrangements. The system of im-
prisonment is that known as cellular, of which, per se, I am not a supporter; but the
cellular system is here applied in a manner quite different from what I have seen it
elsewhere. Each prisoner receives not less, on an average, than five or six visits a day,
from chaplain, schoolmaster, director, trade instructor, or other officials, by whose
presence and converse the burden of solitude is lightened and made tolerable, and by
whose counsels, motives and encouragements to a better life are suggested and pressed
upon the prisoner. The whole aim appeared to me to be the I'eformation of the criminal ;
to that all efforts appeared to be directed ; and the results are as extraordinary as they
ai'e encouraging. The prison has been in operation about twelve years. The recom-
mittals to the old prison of Louvain averaged 70 per cent.; at present they are only 6
per cent. This proves not only that criminals may be reformed, but that their reforma-
tion depends less on organization and system than on the spirit of the administration
and the men who conduct it. " Where thtre is a will there is a way," is a maxim which
seems as true of the intent to change bad men iuco good ones, as of any other human
undertaking.
Of the above account, written after my first visit, I do not retract a
word since the second. I will say no more of the prison, (though much
might be said if one could enter into details,) but must add a word in
regard to its founder and first director, Mr. Stevens. He kindly accom-
panied me on my visit to Louvain, and directed that every possible facility
should be aiforded me for observation ; an order which was obeyed to
the fullest extent, though, from motives of delicacy, he abstained from
making the round of the penitentiary with me. His heart is evidently
238 INTEKNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
still at Louvain, and indeed it is no less manifestly, in its every pulsa-
tion, wholly and most intelligently, in this work of prison reform. I am
sure he pursues it in his dreams, and to it his waking hours, "from
morn to dewy eve," and even till night is far advanced iu her dusky
course, are given with all the freshness and ardor of a virgin love.
The present director appeared to be able and efficent, not unworthy
to have succeeded so distinguished a man as Mr. Stevens.
(b) Convict prison of Ghent, {maison de force.) — It is just a hundred
years since this prison was founded. It owes its existence to the genius
and humanity of the Viscount de Vilaiu, a truly great man, who, in his
conception of the nature, object, and processes of a true prison disci-
pline, was fully a hundred years in advance of his cotemporaries. His-
prison was founded upon the idea of preventing crime by combating
idleness, and of maintaining discipline by moral power instead of brute
force 5 a grand conception, to whose perfect realization the world is
even now slowly and laboriously working its way. Early in his vast
anil tireless visitations of prisons, Howard came to Ghent, where he
found the prison fully organized under the guidance of its illustrious
founder, with its numerous industries in active operation, with its ad-
mirable discipline maintained almost wholly by moral forces, with
its incomparable order and cleanliness, the whole a hive of busy indus-
try, by which nearly all its expenses were paid, and, altogether, the very
antipodes of the English prisons, from whose inspection he had just
come ; it may well be supposed that his eye was delighted and his heart
rejoiced. But more than this, his ideas were enlarged, and his purpose
and courage strengthened ; indeed, his wiiole being received a new and
mighty impulse toward his life-work. Howard was a different man
from what he would have been but for the prison of Ghent, and it is
not too much to say that he was, in some sense and to a certain degree,
himself the creation of the great and good Viscount de Vilain.
The prison of Ghent is of large dimensions, containing accommoda-
tions for a thousand prisoners. It is on the radiating plan, having
eight wings, five of which were already built in Howard's time, and
they remain to day substantially as they were then. It is conducted, in
the main, on the Auburn system, though it is partly also cellular, one
wing being devoted to the treatment of prisoners on that principle. It
was here, indeed, that the system whicli iias become so widely known
as the Aubnrnian had its origin ; or rather, as I conceive, it was first
practised in liome, and was tlie conce[)tion of Pope Clement XL
The director struck me as being an able, energetic man, of great ad-
ministrative ability ; and, withal, he is certainly a warm partisan of
the Auburn as against the Penns.vlvia system.
(c) Detention pri^ion and honne of correction at Ghent, {maison de surete.)
— On my seconil visit to Uelgium 1 made a hurried inspection of the es-
tablishnu'nt named above just as the, day was fading into night. It is
a. large, commodious, well-kept cellular i)rison, designed for two classes
of i)ris()n(!rs of l)<)th sexes : 1. 1'ersons arrested and awaiting trial. 2.
I'ersons sentenced to slioit terms of ini])ris()nment.
§ U. ,/urenile reform a lories. — I visited l)nt one of these, that at Kuys-
selede, near Ostend, wlii(;h, however, is divided into three diOerent de-
y>;iitnientN, in tliiee. dillei-ent localities, and forming, in ellect, three
distinct s<-IiooIh of reCorm — two male and one female — though all under
the Hanie head. The two for boys are at JJu.vsse!e<le- and W^ynghene,
within sight of each other ; that for girls is at ])eern<Mii, two or tlireo
miles distiuit. I could wish that more tiuiie and spa<-.e were at my com-
iriaiHl for a <lescription of this establisliinent, for it wt^U deserves the
EEFOKMATORIES OF BELGIUM. 239-
amplest treatment. With the solitary exception of Mr. Demetz's agri-
cultural colony at Mettray, it exceeds all others visited abroad, both in
its management aud its results ; and in one particular, (to be hereafter
mentioned,) it has the pre-eminence over Mettray and all other juvenile
reformatories known to me in any part of the world.
Kuysselede is the work of Ducpetiaux, perhaps his master achieve-
ment; but he was ably seconded by a man of rare powers and aptitudes
for the task, Mr. Poll, who was its first director, presiding- over it from
the day of his appointment, in 1849, to that of his death, in 18G7, a
period of eighteen years.
The present director, Mr. Eugene Poll, is a son of the late incumbent,
whom he succeeded immediately on the decease of the latter. I was
accompanied on this inspection by the Rev. Joshua Coit, secretary of
the board of prison commissioners of Massachusetts. Though we had
not the advantage of any official or even private introduction, the di-
rector received us, not simply courteously, but with the utmost cordiality.
He conducted us through every department of the establishment at
Euysselede, giving full explanations of all its parts and arrangements,
and answering all questions with perfect frankness.
The class of boys treated here are not criminals, properly so called ;
but they are such as are in danger of becoming so — vagrants, truants,
street beggars, and the like. The whole number received from the be-
ginning is about 5,000. The day we were there the number was 522, of
whom only two were in hospital, and one of them from a broken arm —
a clear indication of the sanitary state of the school, and of the good
care that is taken of the inmates.
The institution is conducted on the congregate plan. The boys sleep
in large dormitories, admirably arranged — as, indeed, every part of the
establishment is — and kept in the cleanest possible condition.
The labor is principally farm-work. The farm consists of two hundred
and forty acres, nearly all under tillage. The kitchen garden contains
nineteen acres ; but, indeed, a great part of the land seemed cultivated
like a garden. The outbuildings and nearly all the accessories are ar-
ranged and kept in the best manner. In short, this may be pronounced
in all respects a model farm. The stock consisted of 18 horses, 114
cows, 7 bulls, 150 sheep, 70 large hogs, 80 pigs — all in the finest order.
While the work is, as already stated, principally expended on the
farm, there is also, particularly in winter, much mechanical labor, which
is distributed through a considerable variety of trades, such as carpen-
try, smithery, painting, varnishing, shoemaking, knitting, tailoring,
spinning, weaving, straw-plaiting, &c. Very few purchases, com-
paratively, are made for the establishment from the outer world, al-
most everything required for consumption, outside or inside the body,
even to the manufacture of the beer, which is there deemed a necessity,
being produced aud worked up on the premises. Thus, for example,
the wool and flax needed for clothing is grown on the farm, and the
boys spin, weave, and work it up into garments. The straw (so much
as ma^' be necessary) is plaited and made into hats. The hides are con-
verted into leather and manufactured into shoes. Stockings are knit
from the wool clipped from their own sheep, for winter use, none being
required for the summer. Aud so on to the end of the catalogue.
This extraordinary thrift, as our New England people would call it, is
the cause of the existence of a fact which, so far as known to me, is
wholly uuparalleled elsewhere in the history of reformatory institutions.
Eeference is here made to the fact that the reform school of Ruysselede
not only pays all expenses, including those of the administratiouj but
240 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
actually realizes a net profit every year of some thousands of francs.
In 1S71 the gain was 3,000 francs ; four years previously it was 10,000.
This result is the more remarkable inasmuch as a considerable number
of the boys are too young to do much toward earning their support, and
conscientious attention is given to the scholastic instruction of all.
The ages of admission are from seven to eighteen; in exceptional cases,
boys younger than seven are received. The term of committal is during
minority. The average stay in the institution is about three years.
Some, however, remain only three months, others from eight to ten
years.
Mr. Poll claims that, substantially, all the children sent to Euysselede
are saved. The number who turn out badly is brought down to within
a fraction of zero.
The school at Wynghene has some fifty boys who have chosen for
their calling a sea-faring life. Here, in a little lake, is a full-rigged ship,
in which they are daily drilled in all nautical maneuvers and terminology.
There are also, in a large apartment of the house set apart for the pur-
.pose, numerous models of vessels and craft of all sorts, with complete
rigging, loaned by the museum at Brussels, to be used for the profes-
sional instruction of the young sailors.
For the rest, beyond the time devoted to this technical training, the
boys in this department occupy themselves precisely as those do in that
of Euysselede — working on the same farm, but in shops at their own
place.
Our next visit was to the girls' reform school at Beernem. This is
conducted by a religious sisterhood, with a lady superior at its head,
though it is under the general superintendence of Mr. Poll. There were
two hundred and fifty inmates at the date of our inspection. We found
it in no respect inferior to Euysselede. The sister-inchief is quick,
sharp, accomplished, and energetic in a remarkable degree. I said to
her : " Sister, I was surprised to learn that the boys at Euysselede earn
their full supjiort. 1 presume that this is not done by the girls f Very
promptly she replied, and in a tone and manner indicating some little
feeling : " The girls gain more than the boys ; their earnings amount to
100,000 francs a year." They are chiefly employed in lace-making, sew-
ing, and laundry work.
With a sufficient number of such establishments as those at Euys-
selede, Wynghene, and Beernem established in all countries, the problem
of the prevention of crime will be far on its way toward a satisfactory
solution. IIow nnich cheaper, as well as better, would it be to save the
vicious children than to punish them as criminal adults!
C IT ATT 1:11 XXXVI.
PERSONAL INSPECTION OF PRISONS AND REFORMATORIES IN HOL-
LAND.
§ 1. MUitdnj jn-'tson of Lri/dni. — This ])risoM is not for soldiers wlio
have c()mmilt«'<l ollcnscs mert^ly against militaiy discipline, but for
such as have been found guilty of acts wiiicli brought tlicin within the
]»urvi('w of the ('rimiii;il laws of the land. Tiie prison is a substantial
structure, very plain, siirroniiding an open quadrangle, whi(;h serves as
an exercise-yard for llie prisoners, who, in companies of forty to fifty,
CELLULAR PRLSON AT AMSTERDAM. . 241
speud au hour there every chiy. On one side of tlie hollow square is a
buildiug containing the offices, on anotlier is the large dormitory build-
ing, and on the two others are the shops, storehouses, school-rooms,
&c. There are eight large halls f6r dormitories, with very lofty ceil-
ings, each having forty-eight small compartments or cells, in all three
hundred and eighty-four, every one of which had an occupant on the
day of my inspection, with au overplus of four prisoners. The arrange-
ment of the cells is unique, and it struck me as excellent. They form a
double row of iron boxes extending the entire length of the hall, with
an encircling corridor not less than ten feet in width. The ceiling is at
least twice as high as the sleeping-rooms, an arrangement facilitating
the supply of pure air. The circulation of the air is farther aided
by the perforation of the iron which forms the front and top of the
cells. AKOund the entire wall runs a water-trough for purposes of ablu-
tion, each prisoner being furnished with a wash-basin of his own. His
towel hangs in his cell at the head of his bed, which latter is of straw,
on an iron bedstead. There are but few articles of furniture' in the
cells, as the prisoners take their meals in the workshops.
Among the industries pursued are shoemaking, rope-making, tailor-
ing, carpentry, smithery, ])aiuting, &c. The prisoners are allowed half
of what they earn, and of this a moiety may be spent in the purchase
of additional food and other comforts during their captivity, the other
moiety being kept as a masse de reserve, to be paid to them on their dis-
charge. The proceeds of the one-half of the labor, which goes into the
chest, suffices to defray all current expenses, except the pay of the staff,
who, being all officers ot the army, receive their salaries in the same
Avay and from the same fund as other military officers.
Every prisoner, if he did not know oue before, is taught a full trade,
whenever his sentence is long enough for the purpose, which is by no
means always the case, as the sentences run from two mouths to twenty
years.
The proportion of prisoners wholly illiterate on entrance is 10 per
cent.; most of the remaining ninety have a fair common education.
Nevertheless, the whole body of the prisoners are required to attend
school two hours every day. Three schoolmasters are employed, who
devote each six hours a day to the work of instruction, and in this they are
further aided by twelve convict assistants. All the branches of primary
and more advanced common-school education are taught, to which are
added, in the case of all prisoners desiring it, French, English^ and
drawing, particularly linear or mathematical drawing. A large room
is appropriated to this last-named department.
Except in the hospital, which was exceedingly neat and cosy, the
prison presented a rather slovenly appearance, and could not be com-
mended as particularly clean. Still, it has merits, and in some points
might be advantageously copied elsewhere.
§ 2. The cellular prison of Amsterdam. — I visited this prison in com-
pany with Mr. Ploos van Amstel, seretary of the prison board, on a
Sunday morning, at the hour -of divine service, and heard, in low
Dutch, what 1 presume, from its animated and graceful delivery, to
have been a very eloquent sermon ; I say from the manner of its deliv-
ery this was my surmise, for I could not judge from its effect on the au-
dience, as pvery man of them was in his cell, and, to all appearance, with
the exception of a few keepers, Mr. Ploos van Amstel, and myself, the
orator appeared to be addressing himself to empty space.
After the service, . we inspected the cells and other parts of the
prison, all of which were found in a state of order and cleauline^js that
H. Ex. 1.85 1(3
242 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
left notbing to be desired. It is a misdeineaiiauts' prison, where sen-
tences range from a few days to two years. It has but two hun-
dred cells, of which, at the date of my visit, one hundred and sixty
had occupants ; forty of these were women, who were accommodated
in a ward entirely separated from the part of the prison in which the
men are confined.
The industries are brush-making, tailoring, carpentry, smithery^
&c. The state only recives three-tenths of the earnings ; the other
seven-tenths belong to the prisoners. Four of the prisoners' tenths are
kept by the administration as a masse de reserve against the day of lib-
eration ; the other three are at their disposal to send to their families,
if they have any, or to spend in adding to the comforts of their jmson
life. ' ' ' .
With rare exceptions, the inmates can read and write ^vtien com-
mitted ; still, two schoolmasters are employed to give lessons in the
cells, and thus to snpplement by added acquisitions the education pre-
viously possessed.
§ 3. Detention prison at the Hague. — Accompanied, or rather con-
ducted, by Mr. M. S. Pols, who had been a government delegate to the
London Congress, I paid a short visit to the congregate prison, in which
are confined prisoners awaiting trial and those sentenced to short im-
prisonments. It is an old structure, bnilt more than three hundred
years ago, and seems chiefly distinguished for two qualities — mass-
iveness and irregularity. As far as what is material was concerned, the
prison is well kept, and everything was clean as soap, water, brush,
and muscle could make it. But all praise must stop at this point.
Prisoners to the number of one hundred and fifty were congregated
there, doing almost nothing but corrupt each other by day, and at night
sleeping in common dormitories, without supervision, to continue the
same business with increased vigor. Few have trades when they come,
and fewer still, even of the sentenced, remain long enough to learn
them. There is here an ample margin for reform.
§ 4. Patronaffc. — The work of aiding liberated prisoners is well organ-
ized in Holland, is conducted in an energetic manner, and is attended
with fair success. There is a central organization, with its seat at Am-
sterdam, called the Xetherlands Society for Ameliorating the INIoral Con-
dition of I'risoners, which has forty branches scattered throughout all
parts of the country, and corresponding members in thirty-seven local-
ities where there are no branches. The great aim of all these associa-
tions, here as elsewhere, is to save the discharged jirisoner from a re-
lapse; but to this end the work of jiatronage is begun in the prisons
themselves. In Amsterdam, and wherever branches of the central so-
ciety exist, the members are i)ermitted and are accustomed to often visit
the ])risoiM'is confined in the Jails of tlie kingdom, M'ith a view to guide
and inlhience them to good. JMany of the societies have committees of
hidies attached, who are active in this Mork, and wliose labors are most
aecei)tal)h' and useful. Wlien 1 had the honor to call upon the president
oi' tliepan'Ut society at Amsterdam, the venerable William H. Suringar,
then over eighty years old, lie showed mo a thick folio volunn^, filled
with closely-wiilten mannscri|>t fi'om cover to cover, and containing the
record of his jiersoMal visits to prisoneis or their visits to him, in which
are set down Hk; main facts in eaeli case. I cannot state thcnumber of
cases in that rare book, ])nt am sure that it inns up into the thousands.
§ 5. 77/6' Ncl/icrhiiid.s M(tlr((i/. — This is oiu^ of the model n^formatories
of ICurope, and is situated at Arnheim, near Zutiihen, distant five hours
by rail from Amsfeidjim. It is on an estate/ nanu'd Itijsselt, formerly
NETHEELANDS METTRAY. 243
the seat of a uoblemau; now an agricultural reformatory colony, founded
twenty years ago by Mr. Suringar, mentioned in the preceding section,
and designed for vagrant and vicious boys, not j'et criminal, but in im-
minent peril of falling. It is a close imitation of the French Mettray,
and is conducted on the strict family principle. There are ten houses
for boys, each capable of accommodating fifteen. They are arranged on
the two sides of a parallelogram, (five each side,) with the residence of
the director at one end of the quadrangle, and the beautiful little church of
the colouy at the other. In the rear of the director's resideuce are the
workshops, school-house, &g. On either side of the quadrangle, but at con-
siderable distance from the other buildings, are the picturesque res-
idences of the sub-director and schoolmaster. A large and substantial
farm-house, with all needful out-buildings, near but outside the main en-
trance, completes the tout-ensemhle of edifices belonging to the estab-
lishment. The spacious square itself, around which all these structures
cluster, has the appearance of an elegant garden, in the center of which
is a charming flower-plot. The effect, to an observer on passing the iron
gate which forms the chief entrance to the colony, is very pleasing, the
coup (V ceil' offering to his view what at first strikes him as a miniature
paradise.
1 was the bearer of a letter of introduction from Mr. Suringar to
Mr. Schlimmer, the director of the colouy, who has served in that ca-
pacity from its origin, and has developed rare gifts and aptitudes for
the place. The sub-director is a Mr. van Veen, who has occupied the
post for only two years, during which time he has given indubitable
proofs of special fitness for its duties. Mr. Schlimmer, knowing only
German, committed me to the sub-director, who could speak French,
and who conducted me through the establishment, explaining every
part in the most satisfactory manner.
i It has already been stated that the ten family houses are for fifteen
boys each, and they were full, or nearly so, on the 7th of August, 1872.
At the head of each household is placed a monitor, selected from among
the larger boys, who acts as an nnder-officer during the day, and has
sole charge of them at night. This system has been substituted for
that of house-fathers — first, on economic grounds, and, second, because
of the difhculty of finding suitable persons willing to serve the colony
in that capacity. The interior of the family^houses is simple and com-
modious, but they were not remarkable for cleanliness, and the estab-
lishment seemed .to me to suffer sensibly from the lack of female care and
influence. Each house has a dwelling-room, wash-room, and closet on
the ground floor, and a dormitory above. The meals are prepared in a
general kitchen, from which they are taken to the several houses, and
each family breakfasts, dines, and sups by itself.
The labor is chiefly farm and garden work, sixty-four acres constituting
the farm. There is a kitchen garden of eight acres, and a smaller gar-
den for fruits and flowers, with nursery, hot-beds, and conservatory,
where the boys are taught and trained in all the mysteries of both the
ruder and finer kinds of gardening. A considerable income is derived
from the sale of flowers, as well in iiots as bouquets, and also from that
of fruits, large and small. The occupations of the colony, additional
to farming and gardening, are shoe-making, tailoring, carpentry, cabi-
net-making, smithery, painting, varnishing, baking, and, I think, a few
others. As far as possible — and it is found possible in most cases — the
boys are permitted to choose the calling they will follow. There is even
a normal school and a military school in the establishment, where those
whose tastes incline them to teaching or military life acquire the techni
244 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
cal knowledge aud training' required for those professions. I was
curious to know how many schoolmasters had been graduated from this
seminary. The sub-director was unable to give the aggregate, but said
that eight had gone out to be teachers during his two years' incumbency.
One of these was on a visit to his former home when I was at Rijsselt.
He was a stout, manly-looking youtb, and seemed greatly to enjoy this
renewal of intercourse with his late comrades. He reported himself as
" doing well," and as satisfied with his place and prospects.
Only boys over nine and under fourteen are received ; on an average,
they remain two years at the colony ; and their services, on discharge,
are much sought after, -ll^ot more than two per cent., according to the
best evidence — so Mr. van Yeen stated — ever become criminals. Most
of them would no doubt have followed a life of crime but for their
training here. How noble and — let us not forget to say to people who
do not love taxes — how cheap a charity this is, cleiirly appears from the
fact that seven hundred and twenty boys have been admitted to its
benefits, and five hundred and seventy-one have gone forth from it, to
add to the productive industry of the state, instead of being spoliators
and destroyers of its wealth, and no less so of its virtue.
The appearance and demeanor of these lads impressed me most ftivor-
ably. One never would have guessed that they had been little Arabs of
the street. Except a few low and repulsive iaces, the whole company
ai)peared well-mannered, cheerful, respectable youths. Their manly bear-
ing and quiet, orderly movements showed the care bestowed on their
bodily training, and, by what I was told, their moral training bears a
fair proportion to the physical. A profane or vulgar word (so I was
assured) is seldom heard, even when the boys are by themselves. The
officers have succeeded in forming a right public opinion among their
elevcs, which acts with great force, and, as a consequence, have created
an cs2)rit de corps which finds expression in such phrases as "We are
the boys of Netherlands Mettray! We respect ourselves, and mean
that others shall respect us."
All the boys are well instructed in the several branches of a common-
school education, and special attention is given to music. An hour is
devoted daily to this branch by the whole school, not all at the same
time, but in groups, according to their advancement. 1 was present at
a class-exercise of this kind and observed how thorough and even scien-
tific was the instruction given, and how intense the interest and delight
of the boys in their work.
Every Hunday, in the morning, the boys attend service in the parish
<^hurch of the neighboring village; in the afternoon at the church in the
colony. Other parts of the day, deducting what is given to suitable
recreations and rest, are devoted to sacred song and various religious
exercises. From 7 to 7.30 on each morning of the week-days a service
of prayer is held in the church, which is conducted in turn by the
director, sub-director, and schoolmaster, wlio reads a chapter and ac-
<'omi)ani('s tlie reading with such comments as he sees fit, and all unite
in singing a hymn, while on«>, of (lie boys i)lays the organ.
Asa means ol' moral education mucli stress is laid on what is called
tlu! "sentence system." It has long since been observed that a pithy
saying, a i)i"()verb, a^ fable, even a single word that infolds a ])regnant
meaning, often ])i()dnces a hai>j)y and lasting eflect upon the young
mind, (.'harles Dickens, when on a visit to a. reibrmatory in Massacliu-
SJ'tts, being called iij)oii for an address, said sim])ly: "Jioys, do all the
good you can, aiid nialce no fuss about it." That curt, crisp sentence
was better lur flic Itox > (liiiii v.onid li:i\e been an hour ol' sil vcr-tongued
PRISON ADMINISTRATIONS IN FRANCE. 245'
rhetoric. !So tlio coiuluctovs of the Netherlaiuls mettray have thought
it good and helpful to make much use of such sentences as these, (some-
times hanging them on the walls, sometimes giving them out to be
learned by heart:) ''lie who seeks himself will not liud God." ''A
I)oor nian'he, who has notliing but money." "He is a fool who lives
poor to die rich." "Labor has a golden bottoai." "Care for the mo-
ments, and these will care for the years."
Whenever anything extraordinary takes place in a family, or when a
boy makes himself notorious by his bad behavior, a sentence is applied.
Thus, on the occasion of the death of one of the parents of a boy, a con-
soling text or sentence is suspended on the wall of his dormitory. One
day Ji boy was overheard using foul speech to a comrade. The seu-
.tence, "It is better to be dumb than to use the tongue for filthy talk,"
was given to him, which he had to read to the company every morning
for eight days. It had the desired effect.
In a corner of the colony farm there is a secluded and beautiful little
cemetery, where are interred the remains of tweuty-three (^olons. At
the head of each grave is ])laced a little painted board, with the name,
age, &c., of the lad wiio sleeps beneath, and the mound surmounting
the grave is planted with flowers. Near the center of the cemetery
stands a large, spreading tree, with its thick branches drooping to the
earth, beneath which the remains of Mr. Suringar were to be interred.
Already, while I pen these sentences, in less than six months from the
time of my visit, the good man who founded this noble institution sleeps
peacefnlly in his last, self-chosen resting-place. "The memory of the
just is blessed." That of William H. Suringar \y\\\ be green and fresh
in mau3^ a heart as long as the Xetherlauds Mettray continues its
benign and beautii'ui work.
CHAPTER X X X V II .
PERSONAL INSPECTION OP PRISONS AND REFORMATORIES IN FRANCE.
§ 1. There are two distinct prison administrations in France — the pre -
fecture of police and the ministry of the interior. The former has
charge of the prisons of the department of the Seine, the latter of all
the other penal establishments of France. Their jurisdictions and all
their movements are as independent of each other as if they were on the
two opposite sides of the English Chamiel. Mr. Lacourt is chief of the
division of prisons for the department of the Seine, Paris; and Mr. Jail-
lant, under the minister, of the division of prisons for the rest of France.
1 called upon both these gentlemen, and had a long interview with each,
with a twofold aim — first, to gain information, and, secondly, to obtain
the necessary authorizations to inspect the prisons within their respective
jurisdictions. Tout le monde had spoken to me of Mr. Jaillant as a per-
son of rare qualities and worth, and I found tout le momle quite right in
its estimate. I was profoundly impressed with the breadth of his intel-
lect, the largeness of his heart, and his thorough devotion to the cause
of prison reform ; and the same impression was made upon me by his
chief of bureau, Mr. Jules de Lamarque. Mr. Lacourt is also a noble
specimen of humanity, a man of large intelligence and broad sympa-
thies, and, like Mr. Jaillant, "well reported of" by his fellow-citizens.
Mr. Jaillant kindly furnished me with a permit to visit prisons out of
Paris, and Mr. Lacourt to inspect those within that city. His author-
246 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
ization, wliicli I give as a matter of curiosity, is in these words: "The
directors of prisons in the department of the Seine are authorized to
admit into those establishments Mr. Wines, who has been delegated by
the American Government to organize an international prison reform
congress, together with any friends who may accompany him, and to
afford him all the information he may desire. Mr. Wines is recom-
mended in a very i^articular manner to the courtesies of the directors.'"
I inspected all the jirisons of Paris; two central prisons, one male, the
other female ; and two (outside of the capital) for the detention of per-
sons awaiting trial, and for j)risoners convicted and sentenced for minor
offenses.
There are eight prisons in the city, viz : 1. The Grand-Depot of the
Prefecture of Police ; the*Conciergerie ; IVfazasj Sainte-Pelagie; Saint-
Lazare ; La Sante ; the Grande-Eoquette ; and the Petite-Eoquette.
§ 2. Before proceeding to any description of these establishments, how-
ever brief, it seems proper, if not necessary, to give explanations of a
few terms employed in the French criminal nomenclature, W'hich, before
going abroad, had troubled me not a little for the reason that I was un-
able to comprehend exactly what they meant. I refer to the words
incuJjJcs, prt'venus^ and accuses. The equivalents of these words in
English all designate persons charged with some offense ; but the exact
distinction is difficult for us to grasp. Indeed, they convey to us no distinct
meanings, because there is nothing in our judicial processes to corre-
spond to them. The incMlpcs, then, are persons who, having been
arrested either on a warrant or jiagranie deUcfo, (in the act of commit-
ting a crime,) are conveyed, prior to a hearing, to some prison for safe-
keeping until their examination takes place. The prcvenus and the
detenus are inculpes, who have had their first hearing, and have been
ordered by the committing magistrate {juge d' instruction) to be held
for trial. But there is a difference between them. The detenus are pris-
oners held for trial on a charge of misdemeanor, {delit ;) the accuses are
I>risoners held for trial on a charge of felony, (crime.) The two classes
are taken belbie different courts for trial — the detcmis before the
tribunal of correctional justice, where the trial is by the judges
alone; the accuses belbre the court of assizes, where they are tried by a
jury. The account to be given of the prisons of Paris will be more
intelligible ibr these slioi't explanations.
§ .'3. The Grand-Depot of the Vrt'/ecture of J'oliee. — This is a prison for
persons who have been arrested by the police, but have not yet had
their hearing before a committing magistrate, {incuJpes.) It is a vast
])ile in one of the courts of the prefecture, with a, capacity for 1,200 to
1,500 prisoners; but into it, I was told, are sometimes crowded 2,000. 1
may icniiuk, just jjcre, that the commitlal and <lischarge of ])risoners,
not only hei-e but <'verywh(u-(^ in Prance, are made with perfect regu-
larity. In every piison the iliiector or keeper mast Inive one or more
r(!gisters, signed on each i)iig(.^ by the ]M-efe(;t or some, magistrate. Tliese
I'egisteis jccord thci act of delivery of each jjrisoner, and, on the mar-
gin, the date of his dischai'ge, as also a co])y of the de(aee, arrest, or
jndgment, in virlne of which it has jdace. It is thus easy to Ix^ sure of
thir legality of ev<'iy inij)iis()nmenl.
'J'he, legal time of detention in th«' ( Irand 1 >e]>ot is twenty-ibnr hours;
l)Ut Hudi is tlje, a(;enniidati()n of business and such the pressure ui)on
tlie time, of tin; magistiates <;liai'ged with the ])i'eliniinary examinations,
that piisoners are olten detained hero a week or more. In the male
de[)artment tliereare some (ifty sejfaratt? cells for the better <;lass of pris-
oners, and Ji somewhat h'ss number in the females waids, whose inmates, I
GRAND DEPOT MAZAS. 247
was glad to observe, were altogether under the care of womeu. But
the mass — and a seething mass it was of corrupt and corrupting
humanity — were thrown i)ell inell together. If the problem had been to
<5reate a sort of cosmo])olitan exchange, where the most dangerous vil-
lains, drawn to Paris from all quarters, could meet, become acquainted
wath each other, and lay plans for future crimes, the intent could
not have been better carried out. A hundred desperadoes, or more,
are there to be seen in a single vast apartment — the scum of all
crafts, the shame and terror of the city. The flow inward and outward
is without interruption. The coming and going never cease. The move-
ment is like that of a shuttle, that incessantly shoots from side to side
of the growing texture. Indolent, suspicious, cunning, lovers of dark-
ness because of the villanies that are sheltered by it, they are little to
be feared when sei^arated from each other. But here they are brought
together by the law itself; they are kept in absolute idleness for days,
or even weeks ; they become acquainted ; they organize ; they plan ;
they know where to meet on the first moment of libert}^ The young
thieves learn from the old ones. They are taught the good stroTcen to be
made. They are instructed in the best modes of operating, from the
picking of a pocket to the breaking into a house. They learn the whole
theory of crime. They are told where to find the safest receivers and
the worst haunts- And so the army of crime is recruited more steadily,
£iS well as surely, than were the legions of Napoleon by the most relent-
less conscriptions. The children are, it is true, separated from the adults ;
but uot from each other. On the contrary, they are confined in associa-
tion, without supervision, in an adjoining apartment, where, it may readily
be believed, the precociously wicked will exercise the greatest influence.
I saw there, in one of the exercising-yards, a most piteous sight — some
fifty boys or more, from seven years old to fifteen, all huddled together
like sheep in a pen, some of whom, from the sobs and blood and angry
tones and fresh-torn garments, had been engaged in a fearful fight. In
the women's ward, also, there is the same promiscuous association ; and,
of course, the same effect of mutual contamination. The authorities
aim to keep the lewd from the rest, but those most affected with this
spirit, and therefore the most dangerous corrupters, are uot always
known to the police. Of what evils may not such contact be the cause ?
§ 4. Mazas. — This i^rison is appropriated to the prevenus — that is to
say, persons who have been placed by the examining and committing
magistrates in the category of misdemeanants, and the trial of whose
cases has been assigned to the tribunal of correctional justice. It is
therefore a j^risou of preliminary detention mainly, though there are
some prisoners here under sentence. It is a strictly cellular establish-
ment, and may be said to be the gift of Pennsylvania to France. It is
the chief fruit, oi' at least the most tangible, of the visit of de Beaumont
and de Tocqueville to this country forty years ago. It belongs to the
largest class of prisons, the number of cells being twelve hundred, and
the mean ijopulation a little more than eleven hundred. I cannot un-
dertake a complete description of this immense structure. Its exterior
aspect is somber and gloomy to the last degree. Stretching its lofty
walls of immense hewn stones on the side of the street opposite to the
stiitiou of the railway of Lyons, it offers in its dismal appearance and
its intense silence a striking contrast to the animation and bustle which
surround it on all sides. The moment you are fairly within, the arrange-
ment of the entire structure is apparent. The cellular system yields
up its secret on the instant. A single glance tells the whole story.
248 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS,
There are six vast galleries, twelve and a half meters* liigli, tlireeand a
balf wide, and eighty long. Six enormous passage ways, radiating from
the rotunda, separate the wings from each other. It is majestic, cer-
tainly, but cold and saddening as well. A staff of seventy officers, under
the director, consisting of a deputy, seven sub-deputies, and sixty-two
overseers, here accomplish, day and night, a wearisome service; for it is
unceasing. Clothed in a blue tunic, on whose collar shines a silver star,
and whose buttons have in the center an open eye, (symbolic of eternal
vigilance,) surrounded by the words Prison de la iSeine, the overseer
passes and repasses incessantly from end to end of the gallery
intrusted to his custody. He looks through the little hole in the
door of the cells, Htly named judas ; he stops if he hears any unusual
sound; he sees everything, w\ithont being seen himself; turning me-
chanically between his fingers the heav3' key which opens all the
doors, he glides rather than walks, and at night wears list slip-
pers, that he may pass more quietly. For the most part, he
is au old soldier, formed to habits of strict discipline, and familiar
with all the severities of the camp. To look at him, one w^ould
say that he forms part of the prison itself. He is silent, like it ; he
never smiles, and if he speaks, it is ever in a low tone. In passing
through a vast cellular establishment like Mazas, one feels, unavoidably,
as if he were in a sick-chamber. 'Tis au instinctive sensation, and not
groundless, for moral, like bodily, lesions often x)artake of the character
of morbid affections. By living constantly in the midst of prisoners,
the keeper comes to look upon them as he does on other people ; he feels
neither horror nor pity. He is polite and even gentle toward them,
partly, i)erhaps, from a kind of indifference, but also because he i^ ad-
vised to such a conduct. But he is no less prudent than polite, and in
retiring from a cell he always goes backward. He sees that the regula-
tions relating to the prisoners, which arc simple and easy to follow, are
strictly carried out. At 5 o'clock in summer, and 6 in winter, the pris-
oners are rung up by a bell in the rotunda. At the end of a half hour
each prisoner must have his hainmo<'.k rolled up and attached to hooks
in the wall, and his cell swept and put in order; the doors are then
opened and the night-vessels removed; at the same time the water and
bread for the day's consumi)tion are distributed. At 8 the morning
soup is passed into each cell in a porringer; at 3 the evening meal is
distributed ; at 8 the bell rings, and the i)risoner arranges his hammock,
and makes his bed. This is the locking up. At 10 every light is put
out, uidess a sj)ecial authorization is accorded by the director, who, in-
deed, rarely r<^fuses it when asked. During the <lay the prisoner works
in his cell at soiru^ one of the industries carried on in the establishment
— l)laiting Jute-mats, making list slii)i)ers, sewing coj)y-booUs for school-
childr(;n, making buttons arul small iron chains, tailoring, shoemaking,
w/)rking at his own trade, «S:c. The number of days' work done
at Mazas in a year is about a (piartcr of a million ; the aggregate earn-
ings not far liotu ]()(),0()() trancs; and the average earnings i>er man for
eacii day ol' work 10 ccntiiiu's, e<iual to S cents. The contractor is rej)-
resented in the juison by a foreman from outside, who chooses, by desig-
nation of the (lircctor, a numbei- ol prisoners who, being more intelligent
and attentive than the rest, are made <;hiefs of shops, wear on the sleeve
a pi<'ce of r«'<l lace, communicate with their comrades in distributing
work and giving directions rtoncerning it, and thus (Mijoy a relative lib-
erty, much desired and much envied. The least inliiK^tion of the rules
' A meter is 39 in dies.
CONCIERGERIE GRAND EOQUETTE. 249
costs the man tlius promoted his strip of lace, sends bini back to the
ranks of the prisoners, and ag'ain locks the door of his cell, which the
necessities of his service had required to be left open tiie whole day.
Mazas is w-ell guarded. The gratings are solid ; every door and gate
is kept firmly locked 5 the walls, of which, as in all French prisons, there
are two, with a wide space between them, are thick and high ; the over-
seers have their eyes wide open, and during the night sentinels are
posted in the circling space between the two inclosures just mentioned.
The element of power is ever in view here, and material force seems the
chief reliance. And in one respect the success has been complete. Not
a solitary escape has been effected in twenty-five years, and only one
attempt to escape has ever been made.
§ 5. The Conclergerie. — This prison is destined to the reception of
men and women to be tried by the court of assizes, {Ics accuses,) and of
sentenced prisoners who have appealed to that court against the judg-
ment of a tribunal of correctional justice. It is an old prison, dating
back hundreds of years, which, if its walls could speak, might reveal
deeds of oppression, cruelty, and torture, which would make the blood
curdle. The Conciergerie is an irregular pile, inclosed within the old
structures of the halls of justice, {palais de justice,) with walls of ter-
rific thickness and solidityj with gates and bars of massive iron, and
interpenetrated through and through with startling and horrible memo-
ries. As I was passing into the apartment where Maria Antoinette was
confined as a prisoner of state, I was warned to be careful ; but as the
special point for caution was not indicated, and I was looking only to
my feet, my head came into very unpleasant contact with the iron
lintel over the door, which almost made me stagger. A gentleman at
my side instantly remarked : " Maria Antoinette bumped her head on
that same lintel when she was brought in here." The Conciergerie is
deep below the present level of the adjoining streets. Its interior has
a sinister aspect — dark, gloomy, repellant. In certain of its passages,
lamps, kept burning at all times, give but a lurid light. Its yard re-
sembles a well, whose sides bristle with points of iron, which prevent all
scaling. There, until within a few years, were seen, sitting or walking
along the wall, groups of prisoners awaiting trial in the court of assizes.
But a cellular ward has now been provided for these, which surrounds a
long rectangular court. In their placehave been sent police prisoners, sen-
tenced to a single day's imprisonment. Their day is passed in this yard.
They pass the night on mattresses spread on the floor of the room, and
the crowd is said to be often so great that even thus space is wanting.
What of evil may not a single day and night spent under such circum-
stances accomplish ! Is not the influence of depraved men, eyen for
so short a period, enough to draw into the paths of crime an irresolute
and feeble spirit !
§ 6. The Grand-Roquette. — This is a depot for sentenced prisoners, whether
their sentence is imprisonment in a central prison, in the bagnio at
' Toulon, or in a penal colony, in which case they are confined here after
condemnation till their removal to their final destination; or to death^
in which case they remain here to the day of execution, which takes
place near this prison. The number of prisoners varies from four hun-
dred to five hundred. This prison has a certain celebrity among crim-
inals, for it is, so to speak, the vestibule of the guillotine. The system
is that of associated labor by day, and cellular separation at night.
The courts are large and airy ; and the discipline is more severe than in
the other prisons of Paris. Every morning, as soon as it is fairly light,
the scene becomes animated. The heavy iron gate, which bars the
250 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
eutrauce, is oi)eiied to admit a huge fourboise omnibus, which comes to
convey to the railway tlie prisoners awaiting transfer. Before their de-
parture barbers cut their hair in such manner that the skin of the
cranium, appearing between the successive ridges, gives them a zebra-
like appearance; this is the distinctive toilet of the galley-slave. After
this, the convict is stripped and a thorough examination made of his
whole person. When this scrutiny is completed he is reclothed in a
new prison garb, and his legs are fastened together by chains long-
enough to allow him to walk, but too short to admit of his running.
Bracelets are next attached to the wrists with a key, under conditions
which make it impossible for him to bring his hands to his head. The
roll is then called; each convict, in replying to his name, must state the
amount of peculium to his credit, which is placed in the hands of the
conductor, and not given to him till his arrival at the prison to which
he is sentenced. Conveyed to the railway station in a cellular omnibus,
the convicts are placed in a car divided into eighteen separate compart-
ments, which they may not leave till they reach their point of destina-
tion.
A sickening tragedy had but recently been enacted within the walls
of the Grand-Eoquette, when I visited it in 1871. It was the execution,
the assassination rather, of the venerable archbishop of Paris and the
president of the court of cassation, by those incarnate demons, the
communists o*f Paris — two men without stain of any kind, and whom
all the good revered and loved. I saw, with a melancholy interest, the
cells in which they had been confined, and the spot on which they were
murdered ; for, surely, it was nothing less or other than murder. With
several others — a half dozen, or more, I think, of inferior rank and
name, but as innocent as they of any crime against the state or against
good manners — they were shot down as felons for whom the sun ought
no longer to shine, or the earth to yield her fruits. Prom their solitary
cells they were conducted in silence down winding stairs, along length-
ened galleries, through open courts, (where the unaccustomed sun-
shine brought with it a gleam of joy to their wasted and weary hearts,)
and between the massive double wall, to a remote and hidden corner of
the prison. Here they were ordered to stand with their backs toward
a platoon of sixty soldiers, only a few paces distant. This order the*
archbishop i)ositively refused to obey, but boldly iaced the murderous
iron rain. His com])ani<)ns fell instantly, on the discharge of the mus-
ketry, but the archbishop did not; whereui)on, at the Mord of command,
two soldiers advanced and, with the muzzles of their rilles almost in
contact with his ])erson, discharged their death-dealing contents into
his heart. 1 counted more than thirty ])laces in the prison-wall Just
behind where the victims I'ell, on which tlie bullets had left their mark.
]>efoie his martyrdom the good man made this memorable declaration to
his assassins: "You may take my life, but, in so doing, you will but
add Jiew force to the princij)le which 1 represent.''
§ 7. tStiinle-J'clafjie. — This is a house of correction, wliich receives men,
sent(;nced to teiins ol" a year and less. 'J\) jjorsons sentenced lor i)olitical
offenses a sp('<-ial \vai<l is assigned, which is entiicly se])ariite<l from the
others. TIm; aveiage ])()piilation of tlic ])rison is IVom live hundred and
lifty to six liundrcd. .An old shucturc, icarcd more than two hundred
years ago, it is but illsnilcd to its jtrescnt, ]»nrpose. All the re])airs put
upon it — and they are plenlifiilly rene\v«'d year by yeai' — ha\ c little ellect.
It bends, as it were, under the weight of time, and a Ibnl and repulsive
anti(|uity invests it with an air an(l an otloi- that are anything but agree-
nhUi. The prisoners lia\e, no dining hall ; they eat in the o])en court
SANTE-PELAGIE SAINT-LAZARE. 251
there, also, they make their toilet, at a fountain. When it rains, they
take their meals in a vast liall on the groundfloor, composed of a half-
dozen or more chambers, whose partitions have been removed — with
portions, however, of the thick walls left still standing, and ottering,
everywhere, obscure angles, into which the eye of the keeper pene-
trates with difficulty. It is in the terrible associations of this hall that
the language of viliany is breathed in whispers. It is there that they
boast of their high achievements in the past; there that they plot new
acts of crime ; there that they prepare, in advance, the good strokes
they will make when the hour of their release is come ; and there that
they organize those combinations which keep the police ever on the
alert, terrify honest people, and weary the tribunals of justice. A man
enters after having committed a peccadillo ; he goes out schooled to
crime and ripe for the galleys.
• But labor is well organized at Sainte-Pelagie, and the workshops are
hives of busy industry. You see there a ceaseless activity and good
work done. With sleeves rolled up and hammer in hand, workmen are
fabricating velocipedes ; tailors, squat and cross-legged, are busily sew-
ing garments for establishments of ready-made clothing; they make
chains; they cut lamp-shades out of paper, &c. Until recently,
they manufactured chignons at Sainte-Pelagie. That industry has been
given up there ; but I afterwards saw it practised on a large scale in the
central prison of Melun. The hair, bought from doubtful heads, gath-
ered little* by little, from all quarters, drawn out by the comb, wound
round cards, thrown into the street and collected by the hook of the
rag-picker, is assorted by colors, divided according to the length, cleansed
in a manner that scarcely increases its attraction, and fastened by the
hands of prisoners on silken threads. Thence, when massed and ar-
ranged according to the rules of art, it goes to the Eue de Eivoli, iu
Paris ; Regent's street, in London ; Broadway, in New York, and wher-
ever else ladies, not satished with the covering of the head provided by
nature, imagine that they can increase their charms by additions of
such dubious origin.
Sainte-Pelagie is surrounded by high and thick walls, on which are
stationed at night a number of sentinels; but, despite this auxiliary
surveiUance, escapes can and do take place. On the 12th July, 1835,
twenty-eight political prisoners managed to get away. When the
director, in measureless fright, went himself to report the fact to his
chief, the prefect of police, the latter dryly replied with a smile, " So
much the better ; the republic is deserting."
§ 8. 8aint-Lazare.— This is an exclusively female prison, devoted to
the reception and treatment of several classes : 1. Women awaiting
trial or sentenced correctionally for terms of one year and under. 2.
Women sentenced to a central prison and awaiting removal, or to death
and awaiting execution. 3. It is a house of coriectional education for
girls under age, sentenced according to the terms of the penal code, or
placed there by way of paternal correction. 4. Prostitutes correction-
ally sentenced as a measure of municipal police. For each of the above
categories there is provided a distinct ward. The legal capacity of the
prison is 1,150, but the prisoners are often iu excess of that number.
The prison is an immense pile, very ancient, with an old and decrepid
look. Originally a convent, it has been turned into a prison. Good,
doubtless, for tlie first of these uses, it is exceedingly ill-adapted to the
last. With large courts, shaded by venerable trees, it has wooden
stairways, dormitories under the roof, workshops, taken apparently at
random, huge refectories, lofty walls, a chapel large enough, but plain
252 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
almost to nakedness, and a neat little oratory, oocupyini;- the site of the
apartment of Saint Vincent de Par.l, wliicli was tlit cradle of the relig-
ious order of the Lazarites.
For more than thirty years the jn^efecture of police has sought to
change this state of things. It has protested, argued, pleaded for the
construction of a house destined to receive female prisoners under six-
teen years, and girls in their mmority, confined by way of paternal
correction. It has no power, no budget; it can only supplicate. But
the municipal council has turned a deaf ear; it had no money. Mean-
while, magnificent barracks, splendid churches have been reared on
all sides, but no house of refuge lias yet lifted its walls where female
children, who have fallen in a moment of forgetfulness, and whom it is
necessary to save at any cost, and to give to marriage, to honor, to ma-
ternity, may find a retreat for repentance and amendment, away from
the purlieus of public x>i'ostitutes and professional thieves.
What has been the result of this economy, which wastes souls to save
dollars ? Just such as might have been expected. Mr. Maxime du
Camp, to whose interesting papers on the prisons of Paris in the Eevue
des Deux Moudes I acknowledge myself indebted for valuable facts and
suggestions, and whose expressions I have not hesitated sometimes to
translate, says that every young girl who enters Saint-Lazare as a cor-
rectional leaves it vicious and corrupted to the very core of the heart. And
he gives convincing proofs of this, in which, however, I do not propose to
follow him ; but the conclusion which he reaches is, that whoever becomes
an inmate there is lost, unless saved by a miracle. These young female
correctionals work in association, bat sleep in separate cells. All the
other inmates are together day and night. In the dormitories the beds
are pressed one against the other, and in the workshops the chairs
touch. It is enough to mention this fact; its corollary is but too
obvious.
At Saint-Lazare, in vast structures connected with the i)riMcipal
building, are found the general magazines and the bake-house of all the
I)risons of Paris. Day and night the ovens flame and the kneading-
troughs are in use. The average of bakings is thirty-two a day each,
yielding two hundred and tliirty loaves. The magazine for clotlung is
a place most interesting to visit. Under the direction of an active and
intelligent woman, the s!)irts, sheets, socks, and caps are ranged in
dittererit compartments. Farther on you see strait-jackets of sail-cloth,
buckled with seven straps, intended to restrain tlie resistance of the
furious, or paralyze all thought of suicide in prisoners condemned to
death. In aiu)ther place are seen winding-sheets of heavy brown linen,
in which jtrisoners are wrapped for burial, who have at length dropi)ed
the chains of this ]u-esent lih;. In still another apartment are pile<i
theblariki^ts, waistcoats, ))antaIoons, and other Avoolen garnuMits, which
have to bo. jtrotectcd against the injury of nu)tlis. All the linen, all the
clothing worn by the prisonei's of I'aris, go<'s from this wardrolx^ and
corties l)ack- to it iigain, when it be(;omes unlit I'or further usc^. J^jvery
year there is a general sale of the ;\rticles which are no longer service-
able. Who would believe that the tiitteicd garments which have been
used in prisons liav*', still a marketable valiui'^ Hut so it is. The old
lirjcn is bought by the hospitals, whi(;h make from it an excellent lint.
I'aper-makers, finding there ^ennin<' henipen cloth, iire eager to obtain
it for the m!inuf';i('tui('or certain (inekimls of pai)er best made from that
material. It is sought ;ilso by railway (;()mpanies, who give it to the
stokers to burnish thi^ briisses of their locomotlv(;s. The woolen rags
are bought, cut up, carde(l anew, spun, and woven into those light
PRISON OF LA SANTK. 253
cloths which inauufacturers know how to juake ui» into garments, which
are sohl at low prices and yet yield lair returns.
§ 9. La iSante. — This is the model prison of Paris, and is, without doubt,
oneof the best and most beautiful in Europe. It has been recently erected,
at a cost of more than 5,000,01)0 francs. It was built under the immediate
direction of Mr. Mettetal, a member of the National Assembly, a gentle-
man of great ability and worth , and profoundly yersed,from Ktudy, not from
experience as a prison director, in penitentiary science. It will be worth
while to go a little into detail in describing this prison, in order to present,
in outline at least, a sort of tangible embodiment of the ideas to which his
studies brought him. The prison covers about seven and a half acres
of ground, is built in the form of a trapezium, and is entirely separated
from all other buildings. The constructions are divided into two dis-
tinct prisons, are built on two distinct plans, and are designed for two
distinct classes of prisoners. One part of the prison is for the treatment
of prisoners who have had their lirst hearing, and are awaiting trial,
{prevenus ;) this is constructed on tlie cellular plan, like Mazas, and can
receive five hundred inmates. The other partis for the treatment of
convicted prisoners, who have been sentenced to correctional imprison-
ment for terms not exceeding a year ; it is composed of halls, workshops,
common eating-rooms, and separate cells for sleeping ; like the cellular
portion, it has accommodations for live hundred.
The part of the prison designed for the prevenus (those awaiting trial)
consists of four wings, each pierced by a large nave or gallery, flanked
on both sides by three tiers of cells. ' Each nave is lighted, partly by
glass placed in the roof, and partly by a huge bay-window at the end,
protected by iron bars. The chapel, placed in the circular building in
which the four radiating galleries of cells terminate, communicates with
the prison of the sentenced, (coudcannes,) by means of an intermediate or
connecting gallery, called the " hospital construction," {bdtiment de Vln-
Jirmerie.) The rotunda is surmounted by a cupola covered with tiles,
like the rest of the edifice, and on the two sides rise immense draught
chimneys, which serve the double purpose of heat and ventilation. The
prison for the sentenced, which occupies the narrower portion of the
trapezium, is to the west of the cellular prison for those awaiting trial.
The exterior walls of all these constructions are of immense square
stones, cemented, the partition walls being in brick. The buildings de-
signed for the accessory services are in the irregular courts between the
wings, and are of hewn stone. Those for the use of the administration
are at the bottom of the first court, or court of entrance. Here all the
employes are lodged, without communication with the interior. Fifteen
to twenty industries — the making of mats, umbrellas, candle-boxes, &c. —
are carried on in this great establishment, the prisoners in separation work-
ing in their cells, while those in association labor in silence in common
work-shops. Thus, classification, industrial labor, cellular separation
for the prevemis, association in work and separation by night for the sen-
tenced— such are the elements of penal treatment, such the agencies of
reform, employed in the mixed prison of La Sante.
Each cell in this prison is 12 feet long, G feet wide, and 0 feet high,
equal therefore to C48 cubic feet. So perfect is the ventilation that not
the slightest disagreeable odor is perceptible even in those cells where
the prisoners are confined day and night.
Ingenious contrivances for overcoming grave difficulties and securing
valuable facilities abound in this prison. To give an example: Ths
altar in the chapel, which, as already stated, is in the rotunda, is so
placed that the officiating priest can be seen by every prisoner confined
254 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
iu the four wiugs of the cellular ward, tlie door of his cell being set a-
few inches ajar and securely locked. At the same time the foldiug-
doors of the congregate part, which form the partition between the two
prisons at that point, being thrown open, every prisoner in association
has also a full view of the ministrant. This is but one among scores
of such contrivances, all due to the genius of Mr. Mettetal.
It cannot fail to have struck the reader that the two penitentiary sys-
tems, so different in themselves, in use at Mazas and Sainte-Pelagie,,
are united in the prison of La Saute ; both of them, however, under
greatly improved conditions. Here the prisoner sleeps on a real bed,,
which can be raised aud fastened to the wall. The table is a flap, sup-
ported on an iron standard, with a hinge for letting it down. The chair
is replaced by a stool. The floor of the cell is composed of oaken boards
inlaid. A special chapel, or at least special church, accommodations are
provided for the prisoners of each faith, under each penitentiary system,
viz : Catholic-cellular, Catholic-cougregate, Protestant-cellular, Pro-
testant-congregate ; and, in like manner, a miniature synagogue is con-
secrated to the use of the few Israelites occasionally confined here. This
prison is the only one in Paris which has a sheltered wash-house, built
expressly for the purpose, where the prisoners, on rising iu the morning,
can perform their ablutions ; a fact referred to, with keen sarcasm, by Mr..
Du Camp, as showing how slowly reforms are introdnced, when they have
to make their way against the good-will of the budget. Thecourts here are
spacious-, and in the workshops air and light enter without obstruction^
and therefore in quantities to meet every necessity of health and com-
fort. On this prison Mr. Du Camp makes the following remark: '*Iu
presence of these two opposite systems, which are here placed side by
side, under the eye of the same director, an experiment is in progress,,
whose results it will be easy to record, and which will afford essential
aid to those who are in search of a solution of the penitentiary problem.
From records thus made up may be determined, after a sufficient lapse
of time, which system sends back to the tribunals the largest number of
recidivists." I must respectfully dissent from this opinion, and for the
following reasons : 1. The prisoners of La Saute, subjected to the two
systems, belong to essentially different classes, and their treatment has
in view essentially diff'erent ends ; consequently, there is a diversity in
the premises, which would vitiate the conclusion. 2. The cellular sys-
tem is api)li(!d, at La Saute, to prisoners awaiting trial ; prisoners, there-
fore, whose guilt or innocence has not yet been determined, and who, "as
a further consequence, are not under criminal treatment at all. 3. There
is no difference of opinion among enlightened penologists as to the ap-
plication of cellular separation to this class of prisoners ; all favor it as
a matter of ])rime iin])ortnnce. 4. Even the correctionals at La Sante
liave, as their maximum, an imj)risonment of only one year, and that of
the great<!r part falls far below that limit. (Cellular imprisonment for
such short i)eriods would furnish no ((atd for conclusions relating to that
HI)ecies of im]^risonment for lengthened terms, o. There is a general,
not to say universal, jigreement among students of penitentiary science,
that to give a sharp, energetic notice to (irst offenders, mainly with a
view to (h^terrence, the best dose is a few months of strictly cellular
confin<;menl. (>. I'i.\periments like that at- La Sant*'', embodying the two
systems, to furnish eonijjarative results of real vahu^, must beconducted
uniler two (conditions: a. They must ('inbi'aec! tinujs of such lengths,
and sulijeets of such a class, as Ixclong to debatable ground, h. They
must be applied by o 111 cers free from all prejudice in favor of the one
PETITP: ROQUETTE central prison at CLERMONT. 255
system or tbe other, so that their observatious and Jiulginents shall be
absolutely impartial — a condition hard to be realized.
I cannot close this account of La Santc without stating the strong-
impression made upon me by the intelligence and courtesy of the di-
rector, as well as by the politeness of his staff, who vied with each
other in tlie alacrity with which they answered questions, and, in ev^ery
way, sought to promote the gratification of their visitor. The same re-
mark will apply to tlie j^ersounel of the other prisons of Paris.
§ 10. La retiicRoqiiette. — This is a prison, or, speaking technically, a
house of correctional education, for juvenile delinquents of the male sex.
There are received into it prisoners of four classes : 1. Children under
sixteen, arrested but not tried. 2. Children of the same maximum age,
under sentence. 3. Children in transitu to agricultural colonies. 4.
Minor children, against whom their parents have obtained a decree
of correctional imprisonment. It is on the cellular system. Think
of it! Babes, almost, shut up for weeks and months in a cell!
They have even separate exercise-yards. They have hoops there vrhick
they trundle in the few square yards allowed them. But the
place is too strait ; the hoop strikes the wall after two or three revo-
lutions, and the children, weary of this mere mockery of play, sink
down upon the ground to dream of some place of real amusement.
Separation by day, separation by night, separation at meals, separation
at work, separation in play-time, separation always and everywhere,
and that in the case of children, the very age when freedom, play, and
motion are almost an essential condition of existence — certainly an
absolute condition of healthy existence. It is the saddest pVison
I ever saw; and h would bo intolerable if it were not for the "Pat-
ronage Society for liberated juveniles of the department of the Seine,"
to be hereafter noticed. Mr. Du Camp has well remarked that
La Petite-Roquette is perhaps the most important prison in Paris,,
because its inmates are children whom it is necessary to snatch from
crime, and to lift up to industry and virtue ; and that therefore it ought
to be managed on a difterent principle, and placed near Paris, on some
large farm, where the children could feel the benign influence of the
sun and the open air.
§ 11 .The central prison at Clermont. — This is the largest female central
prison of France ; it is also the best conducted and the most successful.
The site is magnificent. It stands on an eminence just outside the city,
and commands a prospect as extensive as it is charming. The germ of
the prison was an old castle of the middle ages, in which the first of the
Bourbon kings was born. I was shown through the prison by the di-
rector himself, Mr. Bailie, who explained everything with the utmost
patience. The discipline I found equal to that of the Albany peniten-
tiary. The order and cleanliness were most admirable. The floors of
all the apartments, including the kitchen, were white from constant
scrubbing. The tins, coppers, and brasses were scoured and burnished
to the last degree of brightness. The prisoners' beds were made of a
mixture of wool and horse-hair. The sheets were like snow, and the
gray blankets had an unusually tidy appearance. To the question how
often the sheets were washed, the director replied, "Just as often as
they need it;" and their appearance showed that the answer was not a
cover for official neglect, but the literal truth. In reply to another
question, he said that the underclothing of the prisoners would be
washed three times a day, if such a thing" should be necessary to clean-
liness.
The women sleep in common dormitories (a ^plan not to be approved)
—seventy-five to one hundred in an apartment — with a sister in an
2o6 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
adjoining room, and a raouitress, herself a prisoner, in the dormitory
with her feHow convicts. There are fonr dining hialls. Underneath
each table, and forming- a part of it, is a box of the same length, divided
into as many compartments as there are occnpauts of the table — one for
each — in which they keep their salt, pepper, and vinegar, together with
whatever they may have purchased for themselves. But how do pris-
oners come into the possession of money? I will explain. There are
three kinds of sentence to the central prisons, viz, simple imprisonment,
reclnsion, and hard labor. The last-named of these sentences, in the
case of men, are, with a few exceptions and for special reasons, served out
in the bagnio at Toulon or the penal colonies; but in the case of women,
in the central prisons. Xow, the net earnings of all French prisoners
are divided into tenths. Of these tenths, prisoners sentenced, for the
first time, to simple imprisonment receive five ; those sentenced to re-
clnsion, four; and those sentenced to hard labor, three: but, in all cases,
prisoners whose conduct and industry are exemplary in the highest de-
gree may, in the discretion of the director, receive au additional tenth.
I*er contra, on each recommittal the prisoner's share is reduced one-tenth:
with this reserve, however, that the last* tenth can never be taken from
him, so that hope may never be wholly lost. On this point it may be
farther stated tlmt, in addition to the portion to which prisoners are
legally entitled, the contractor may allow to particular individuals such
quantities as he pleases, as a stimulus to diligence. The portion of
earnings allotted to the prisoners is called jyeculinmj and, in every case,
it is divided into two parts — disposable j^t'c^z/nn?? and resevved i)ecidium.
The latter, called masse de reserve, is kept for the prisoner to the day of
his liberation ; the former is at his disposal for the purchase, during his
imprisonment, of little comforts, additional to the fixed prison rations,
such as tea, milk, butter, cheese, bread, &q. This is done at the cantine.
already explained in my account of the prison at ]S'eufchatel.
To the <iuestion, put to quite a number of the women, as we passed
through the prison, whether they found iha pecidium an encouragement
and stimulus, the answer was uniform, as it was prompt and emphatic,
that they did. Some of the convicts at Clermont, who are engaged in
the more skilled of the industries practised there, such as corset and
dress making, earned for themselves 70 francs, equal to Sl5 per month.
The director informed me that he had paid women, on their discharge,
as high as 4,000 francs. But these, of course, are exceptional cases.
After the above statements, it will not seem wonderful that the con-
tractor takes these women and agrees, for the product of their labor,
to defray the entire current expenses of the prison, save the cost of the
administration, food, clothing, bedding, ordinary repairs, &c. It is thus
seen that, leaving the ailministration oat of the account, this prison is
self-sui)porting. There is but one other in France — a male central
prison — of which so much can be said ; and which, according to the
oflicial reports, not only pays its way, but earns a small suri)lus.
There is a department of this prison (and it exists in several others of
the same chiss) of much interest, called " the ward of preservation and
reform," {fjuarlicr de conservation ct d^onendemcnt.) On the arrival of a
convict, an in(iuiry is instituted into her i)ast character, coiuluct, and
the (;ircumstances of her crime. This inijuiry is conducted by a kind of
court, consisting of tlie director, sub-director, chaplain, inspector, and
matron. If it is found that she had previously borne a good character;
that she liad never l»efore committed a crime; that her i)resent offense
is one not in)i)lying grave moral degrad;Uion, and that she has been
reared in an honest and respectable family, she is jdaced in the ward of
CENTRAL PRISON AT MELUN. 257
preservation and reform. This ward, at the time of my visit, had fifty
inmates. It had then had an existence and a history of six years, (if
one hundred prisoners who had been discharged from it, not one had
come back. Its inmates are as much separated from the rest of the
convicts as if they were confined in different prisons.
On our round we visited, as a matter of course, the prison school,
where were a hundred women engaged in the several exercises of read-
ing, writing, and calculating. A more quiet, well-behaved, industrious
set of pupils I never saw. A sister told me that they were very quick
in mastering the difficulties of arithmetic, and of their progress in pen-
manship I had ocular proof. A girl who could scarcely scrawl a few
letters when committed, wrote an excellent engrossing hand, and there
were others not much behind her. The conditions entitling i^risoners to
the advantages of the school are : good conduct, sufficient intelligence,
and an age not exceeding thirty-five years.
There is a library at Clermont of 700 volumes, not large considering
the size of the prison ; but, owing to constant occupation, the prisoners
did not appear to have any great amount of time for reading at their
disposal. However, seats are provided in the exercise-yards, and it is
permitted to either walk or sit during the daily half hour passed there.
Such as choose may devote this time to reading. The prisoners are
often read to by the chaplain or a sister during meal-time. They have
also a good deal of time on Sunday, during which they either read or
listen to reading in the workshops.
Some interesting statistics were furnished me for 1SG9, as that had been
a normal year, which 1870, the year of the Franco-German war, was not.
The average prison population for that year was 73G. There remaine'd
in prison at the end of they ear 604, of whom were sentenced to simple
imprisonment 379; to reclusion, 70; to hard labor, 215. The net product
of the prisoners' labor was -J23,221 francs ; gratuities paid prisoners by
contractor, 0,031 francs ; total, 229,855 francs. Peculium of prisoners,
including contractor's gratuities, 93,975 francs ; contractor's share of net
earnings, 137,880 francs ; total, same as before. Judged by the num-
ber of punishments inflicted, the conduct of the prisoners must have
been remarkably good, the average being but a small fraction over one
a day. They were distributed thus : To prisoners sentenced to simple
imprisonment, 050 ; to reclusionaries, 52.; to hard-labor convicts, 107;
the number of prisoners in the first class being 379 ; in the second, 70 ;
and in the third, 215. A remarkable feature of this exhibit is that the
prisoners who are sentenced for the lowest grade of oft'enses commit
twice as mafiy breaches of discipline, in proportion to their number, as
those convicted of the next grade, and four times as many as those sen-
tenced for the highest grades, and that a similar disproportion exists be-
tween the number of disciplinary offenses committed by the two last
named of these classes. The conclusion from which would seem to be
that the worst criminals make the best prisoners, on the principle, per-
haps, that " practice makes perfect."
Although, as already explained, there are three kinds of sentences to
the central prisons ; yet, as far as treatment is concerned, these distinc-
tions are nominal. All prisoners work together in the same shops, sleep
in the same dormitories, and are in all respects subjected to the same
regime.
§ 10. Male central prison at Melnn. — This is one of the best and most
successful, both economically and morally, of the French j)risous.
It had seven hundred inmates at the date of my visit. In cleanliness,
order, discipline, and material effectiveness, it seemed almost perfect.
H. Ex. 185 17
258 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
It lias fourteen large workshops, arranged on the two sides of an im-
mense building', with a wide hall running through the middle from end
to end, from which yon enter the several shops, in each one of which a
different trade is carried on. I ne\er saw workshops more conveniently
arranged or better ventilated. The industries appeared well organized
and effectively conducted. The moral appliances are evidently better
here than in most other prisons of its class, for while the average re-
lapses in the central prisons exceed 40 per cent., at Melun it is less than
20. Every morning there is held, in a room called the pretorium, a
l)rison court, composed of the director, sub-director, inspector, chaplain,
and perhaps some other officers, where all offenders against prison regu-
lations are arraigned, heard, and judged with the same strict regard to
justice as offenders against the laws of the land are in courts of crimi-
nal jurisdiction. This court is found, I think, in the central prisons
generally, perhaps universally ; it certainly is at Clermont. It is the
feature most to be commended in the French peniteutiar}^ administration.
The ward of preservation and reform I found at Melun as at Clermont,
and with the same good results. There are also in this prison certain
cells, called cells of repression, designed for the separate confinement of
dangerous and incorrigible prisoners, as the others are for that of pris-
oners of whose return to virtue good hope may be entertained.
The director at Melun impressed me as being a man of extraordinary
intelligence, ability, and force of character.
§ 11. Departmcnial prisons at St. Omcr. — I had a young friend at this
ancient city, Mr. A. Corne, with whom I had corresponded for a number
of years, who met me at Calais, where we first saw and embraced each
other, and whom I accompanied to his official residence at St. Omer,
where he held the position of sub-prefect of the department of Arras.
He was a young man of rare ability and large attainments, evidently
one of the coming men of France ; but he has since passed aw^iy from
earth, when only the first fruits had been gathered of Avhat must have
been, If his life liad been si)ared, a full harvest of nsefuluess and honor.
At St. Omer I inspected two departmental prisons, viz, a house of
arrest and a house of justice. The first was a prison for persons arrested
and held for trial before a correctional tribunal or a court of assizes, {Ics
prevenus et Ics accuses.) The building is old, ill-arranged, badly venti-
lated, and, in the basement-story, damp and unhealthy; though we have
worse i)risons in America. The prisoners are in common rooms by
day and common dormitories by night, being thus in association the
whole time, with every opportunity for mutual contamination. The sec-
ond was a larger as well as less ancient structure, designed for i)ersons
sentenced to an imprisonment not exceeding three months. It was un-
dergoing extensive rei)airs, and promised to be, when these were com-
]>let<'d, a fair prison of its class, but still highly objectionable on the
ground of its common dormitories. Tlie labor, as in the Fren(;h prisons
generally, is let to a (tontrai.-tor, {cntrvprcncur.) The contractor assumes
the oldigation to furnish the supplies of food, clothing, and other neces-
sary articU's, at such a i»rice, for a term of three, six, or nine years, and,
in i»art pavnient, lie has a light to the labor of the prisoners, but no
light or(M)ntr()l oNcr them, or of inteifei'eiiee with the discipline, lie can-
not even introduce an instiiuitor or loreinan, <listinct from the personnel
of the administrat ion ; 1m^ gets simpl.\ I lie jtrodnet of their labor, having
the right to inti'oduce such juopi'r industri(\s as he ])U^ases and the obli-
gation to fujnish occupation to \\n\ }»risoners at all times.
Tlierc is another and higher class of dei)artniental i)risons, called the
house of correction, to wiiich prisoners are sentenced for a term not
GENERAL REMARKS ON FRENCH PRISONS. 259
xcei^.Aiiig" 0118 year ; but this is always at the cliief city of the depart-
ment, and, as St. Oiuer does not bold that rank, I did not see it.
§ 12. A quasi prison. — There is an establishment at St. Omer of a
somewhat miscellaneous character, half prison and half something else.
It is for the treatment of women and girls, and is under the care of the
Sisters of the Good Shepherd, who are specially devoted to labors of
this kind. It numbered, when I visited it, four hundred and fifty in-
mates, made up of four difterent classes, or categories^ as they are
named by the sisters. The first category was of prostitutes, one hun-
dred and eighty in number. Most of them were young, though none
are excluded on account of age. They remain many years in the insti-
tution, and it is claimed that the greater part become thoroughly
reformed. For the support of this class the state allows 40 centimes
(equal to 8 cents) each a day. The second category is much smaller,
consisting of a select few from the first, Avho^ because of the thorough
confidence re^^osed in them, are in training to become sisters themselves.
The third category is of girls, mostlj" from very bad families, who, hav-
ing been convicted of some petty offense, are placed here for safe-
keeping and reformation. For their maintenance the state also pays 40
centimes each i)er day. The fourth category consists of younger girls,
orphans for the most pait, either in fact or because of the desertion or
vices of their parents. This is simply an industrial school, toward
whose support the state pays nothing. It is a charitable institution,
sustained by the gifts of the benevolent and the labor of the children.
Each of these four categories forms a community by itself, entirely
distinct from the others, having difterent buildings, refectories, schools,
dormitories, &c. Their only industry is sewing — shirt-making chiefly —
and their average earnings are about 35 centimes a day.
This institution, so novel in its plan, appeared to me to be one of
great merit and usefulness.
§ 13. General remarlcs on French ^>r<,s'0»s. — a. The same character-
istic— the same defect, I may say — struck me as inhering in the French
as in the English i^rison administration ; indeed, it is not peculiar to
those countries, but belongs to all, though in diflerent degrees, and, I
am grieved to add, to far too great an extent in my own. I refer to the
greater attention given in them to material than to moral efhciency ;
the greater effort made to secure the former than the latter. The cen-
tral prisons are models of order, regularity, labor, neatness, and discip-
line ; but intimidation, deterrence, seems to be their chief aim. Material
order is carried to its highest power ; moral order seems rather languid.
Little effort, little thought even, appeared to me to be given to reforma-
tion. The system punishes, but does not amend. The administration,
the legislature, the country feels this profoundl}-. Hence the warm in-
terest taken by France in the congress of London. Hence, too, the
important measure recently inaugurated in the national chamber under
the lead of the Viscount D'Haussonville ; I mean the creation of a great
commission of thirty of the picked men of France, charged with the
duty of studying anew the whole penitentiary question, and suggesting
the reforms needed in the penitentiary system. I had the pleasure of
witnessing the deliberations of that body during an entire sitting of
three hours; and I feel persuaded that results of the highest value to
France and the world may be anticipated from its labors.
b. As the fruit of the state of things described in the last paragraph,
relapses increase, and the number of recidivists multiplies, from year
to year, despite the many ameliorations introduced within the last half
century into the penitentiary regime. Such a result shows the iuefii-
260 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
cacy of tlie principle of intimidation, when exclusively or even chiefly
relied upon, and the necessity of introducing' into the system, as a liv-
ing element, the principle of reformation. To justify what I have said
as to the increase of relapses, 1 cite from a work on the Prisons of
France, by Pastor E. Eobin, an eminent French penologist and philan-
thropist, who states that the percentage of recidivists in the central
prisons had risen in four years (lS6tt-18GS) from 34 to 42. The latest
report of the administration seen by me, that for 1871, if my memory
serve, (for I have not the document at hand,) makes the recommittals
in those prisons 44 or 45 per cent. In the prisons of Paris the percent-
age of relapses is still greater. In 1868, 00 per cent, of the prisoners
arraigned before the tribunals of correctional justice had been convicted
before, and of those arraigned before the court of assizes, 45 per cent.
Mr. Du Camp observes that this large number of relapses proves that
repression, intimidation, deterrence, is not enough; that it is neces-
sary to repudiate the old lex faUones, (law of retaliation ;) that, if it is
just to jiunish, it is essential to reform; and that to attain this end,
offered to every civilized nation, the i^rison must be made a moral hos-
pital.
c. The wards of preservation and reformation, found at Clermont and
Melun, have already been noticed. Others exist in the lemale central
prison of Haguenau, and the male prisons of Fonteorault, Poissy,
Eysses, and Gaillon. The name given to this institution, ward of
preservation^ as noticeel by viscount D'Haussonville in the report with
which he introduced into the chamber of deputies his proposition for a
penitentiary commission, suggests a pregnant reflection, viz : That, in
the judgment of the administration itself, the simple fact of an impris-
onment in these establishments is likely to add to the depravity of their
inmates. This, "continues the viscount, is a sad confession, but one
which it is necessary to weigh carefully, without reproach to the admin-
istration, whose good faith and zeal it attests.
d. The dietary of the French prisons appears to have been brought
down to the lowest standard, and is scarcely sufficient to meet the average
necessities of the prisoners ; certainly not of those whose appetite is
strongest. This fact is noticed by JMr. Du Camp, who says that the food
furnished to the inmates of the prisons of Paris is not sufficient for all,
and that some would suffer from hunger if the pecuUum did not enable
them to make some purchases at the cantlne, which is found in every
French i)rison. The mnf/ne is an establishment belonging to the con-
tractor, there being but one contractor allowed in any of the central
prisons. The average ])rop()rtion of the earnings assigned to the con-
victs does not vary much from four-tenths. The contractor reserves
the right to sell to tlie prisoners, at i)rices fixed by the administration,
Knpi)lein('ntary articles of food — such as bread, meat, vegetabhis, S:\:.
lie tinis pays the ])rison('r his pecitliidii, and re(;eives nearly one-half of
it back jigain for commodities s(>hl to liiiii,in this manner retaking with
one hand what he had given with the other. Jiy such an arrangement
the administration seems to confess that the rations are scarcely sufli-
cient; and what makes this still more evident is the fact that those
j)risoners who are einploye<l in the service of the house, {service econo-
iniquc,) and therefore get no pcctdium, receive some sons from the ad-
ministration, with which to ]»wrchase articles from the vaniinc.
§ 14. Mcttray. — La colonie affricate el penitentiaire at Mettray, five
miles distant from Toms, in the fertile and ciiarniing valley of the
Loir<^, was the only reformatory institution which the time at my com-
mand i)ermitted me to visit in J^'rance; antl there I had the great liappi-
peinItentiaey colony of mettray. 261
ness and honor of passing two days as the guest of the good man who
founded it — M. Anguste Demetz. To describe Mettray in detail, in. its
organization, workings, and results, covering, as its history now does, a
period of thirty-four years, would require a volume ; whereas a glance
is all that my limited space will allow. At the meeting of the Universal
Alliance of Order and Civilization, held at Paris in the month of June,
1872, Mr. Demetz presented a paper under the title of " An Exposition
of the System of Education employed at the Agricultural and Peniten-
tiary Colony of Mettray, and of the House of Paternal Correction,"
(maison paterneUc.) This pa])er is in the nature of a report, which, as a
matter of course, gives the latest as well as the most authentic infor-
mation relating to this world-renowned establishment. Not only shall
I not hesitate, but rather regard it as a duty, to supplement my own
notes and recollections by the information afforded in this report, and
in some other recent publications on the subject, notably those of Mr.
Charles Sauvestre and Miss Florence Hill ; and that without feeling
-obliged always to employ the ipsissima verba of those authors, or to in-
cumber my pages with formal references or quotation marks. For a
number of years the average population of Mettray has been not far
from 700 ; at the time of my visit, August, 1872, it was 792. Of the 4,287
children received at Mettray since its foundation, 017 were illegitimate ;
1,657 were ori:)hans by the loss of one or both parents ; 291 w^ere found-
lings ; 595 had step-fathers or step-mothers ; of 381 the parents were
living in illicit union ; of 889 the father, mother, brother, or sister had
been in prison ; and of 7 the father or mother had been sentenced to capital
l)unishment. What a multitude of young immortals, almost without
exception the children of poverty, misery, neglect, and crime ; of evil
surroundings and evil influences, whose name is legion ! What a fearful
catalogue of exposures ! How few and faint the chances of victory in
such a battle ; how almost certain the issue of defeat and ruin, unless
some helping hand, strong to deliver, should be stretched out to the res-
cue. It was the sight of these exposures, and the certainty of a dis-
astrous issue in the greater number of cases, which caused M. Demetz
to abandon a career that was opening to him the highest judicial honors
of his country, and devote himself to the salvation of imperiled child-
hood and youth. He traversed Europe to And a model, and found it in the
Kauhe Hans, near Hamburg, established six years before, by Mr., since
Dr. Henry W^ichern. It was the separation of the children into groups,
called families, and the making of farm-work their princii>al occupation,
which most struck his imagination and won his judgment in the Eough
House. He chose the family principle asthebasis of his proposed establish-
ment on a twofold ground — one having reference to the officers, the other
to the children. Division into families, he considers, makes superintend-
ence more easy, direct, and kindly ; more easy, because it extends over
only a small number; more direct, because it brings responsibility home
to one person ; more kindly, because its tendency is to awaken in the
head of the family, and his assistants, the sentiments of sympathy and
affection. Upon the children themselves he regards its influence as no
less beneticial. The authority exercised over them is paternal ; they
become attached to their house-father: and this mutual affection be-
comes a moral force of incalculable power. Then, again, this division
into families (such is his mode of reasoning) facilitates the individual
treatment of each child. Individualization is an indispensable eleaient
in reformatory treatment, which renders it, in the opinion of Mr. Demetz,
a grave error to economize in the number of agents employed in the
work. He holds that the family is the supreme of moral forces which
262 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
act upon the human race, and that every man is a reflection of the in-
fluences in the midst of which he jiassed his earliest years. The power
of example upon the young is omnipotent. Whence can the child,
reared by irreligious, disorderly, vicious parents, draw those moral
principles which are the safeguard of all ? The family either kills virtue, or
breathes into it the breath of life. The task proposed tohiniself by the
founder of Mettray was to create a moral constitution in the criminals
who became his wards, and to substitute for the family which ruined, a
family which will save them. He acknowledges that it is a fictitious
family which he gives them, but claims that it has all the solicitude, all
the tenderness even, of a real family. The chief takes the title of
father of the family, and has all the devotion implied in that designa-
tion.
The advantages of this division into families show themselves more
sensibly from day to day. M. Demetz thinks that disciplinary" action
.and moral action have been, hitherto, too much confounded. A regi-
ment may move at the word of command, a ship's crew at the sound of
the boatswain's whistle ; but recourse must be had to other agencies if
our aim is to affect moral character. For this reason too many children
must not be confided to the same person ; and the agents must be mul-
tiplied, under penalty of simply rearing instead of educating. . It is, so to
speak, in single combat that we must w-restle with these young souls, if
we would conquer their evil inclinations and kindle in them the senti-
ments of honor and virtue.
M. Demetz avers that he has takeu for basis of the reformatory edu-
cation of Mettray, the religious sentiment; for a bond of union, the
family spirit ; for order, military discipline — three elements, each strong
in itself, but of immense power to hold man to duly, when combined and
made to act in unisou toward the same end.
The chief industry at Mettray is agriculture. Tlie device adopted for
the colony is, "To improve the earth by man, and man by the earth;"
and that principle is carried out to the fullest extent. To defend the soil,
and to enrich it, is the mission to which the colons of Mettray are called.
How well these brave youths have fulfilled the first part of this mis-
sion the following facts attest: All the colons who were from seventeen
years of age to twenty, joined the army the moment the French soil was
invaded by the Germans in the late war, to the number of one hundred
and eighty, and Ibught with unsurpassed bravery. ]\rauy died on the
field of battle; many others were wounded; numbers distinguished
then)selves by acts of special valor; four were decorated with the rib-
bon of the Je,iL;ion of honor, and nine with the military medal; and four
received commissions as oflicers. Among those Avho received decora-
tions, Mettray naiiu's with honorable pride one of her colons, aged nine-
teen years, an uiid<'r-oflicer of engineers, who, during the siege of Metz,
crossed tlie I'russian lines six times to obtain information, and report it
to his general.
As regards the second part of their mission, as named above, almost
the entire j)opnlation of IVIettray is engaged in agricultural labors during
the months of spring, summer, and autumn. A vast domain, composed
of a nnmlMM- of farms, is cultivated by them. To save time and fatigue
in going to and from work, tln^ colons ar(% to soiUe extent, distributed
in dillcicnt localities. The main body is at ]\Iettray, but tliere are two
outlying cstablislimcnts, t» wliicli the (tider boys are di'al'tcd, as their
goocl (conduct and tiiistworthin«'ss incritsuch a distinction, lor here they
are under much less icstraint, and live, in all resi>ects, nu»re like ordi-
nary liired laborers on a farm. From one of these establishments the
PENITENTIARY COLONY OF METTRAY. 2Q3
boys come in and spend Sunday with the main body of the colons; but
from the other only on extraordinary. occasions. These outlying posts
form a sort of intermediate establishment, similar to that at Lusk,
under the Crofton convict system, and serve as a stage of provisional or
preparatory liberty.
But though the tilling of the land is the chief employment at Met-
tray, and is undoubtedly better than any other for moral training, yet
industrial occupation, at a variety of trades, is also provided ; but these
trades are all such as are required for the j)roduction of implements
either for farm-work or for articles to meet other needs of the estab-
lishment. Besides the shops for the manufacture of carts, plows, har-
rows, rakes, &c., there are carpenters, masons, millers, tailors, sabot-
makers, painters, glaziers, tin-workers, &c. ; for the colony is almost
wholly self-supi)lied. But all the colons, who work at these various
handicrafts in the winter and such other times as may be necessary, also
labor in the fields in summer. Thus they become master of two indus-
tries, and can be employed alternately as wheelwrig^hts and farm-hands,
a fact which makes them extremely serviceable, and causes them to be
much sought after by the neighboring farmers.
As I have already said, there were seven hundred and ninety-two
boys at Mettray at the date of my visit. They are divided into house-
holds of fifty, each under the care of a superintendent, called the chief
or head of the family, {chef de faniiUe,) and an assistant who has the
title of the eldest son, {Jils aine.) Thus are the ties of social affection
re-established by a kind of adoption with a moral force that nothing
ever destroys. These ties are so powerful, the attachment felt by the
former colons of Mettray is so strong, that they return with joy to recount
their successes in life. Every Sunday those who have found employ-
ment on the neighboring farms, come to pass the day of rest at the old
home, and to take part in the exercises of their comrades. I found
things at Mettray precisely as described by Mr. Sauvestre, and there-
fore gladly avail myself of some sentences taken from his account of
the " System of Education." He remarks :
I will now try to give an idea of tbe mode of edncatiou adopted at Mettray, and show
the ingenious means aud delicate precautious by which the hearts of its youthful inhabit-
ants are touched aud softened, and their ill-feeling, craft, aud perverse instincts, which
before menaced society, are converted into salutary and friendly forces. I have spoken
of my arrival at the colony, across parks and gardens, aud how I found myself in the
middle of the square without having encountered a siugle- barrier. I came again the
next day, about the same time; it was during the play-hour, and the children were
amusing themselves before dispersing to the workshops. There were no walls, nor
ditches, nor iuclosures of any sort, nor even any guards. The games were all in full
swing, when suddenly a bugle sounded ; at once play was stopped, and at another
bugle-call the children divided themselves into companies, according to their work.
Then the band began a joyoiis strain, and the dili'erent groups in military style marched
past the heads of families, led by their foremen. Here are agricultural laborers, gar-
deners, wheelwrights, millers, shoemakers ; aud others on their way to the school. When
all had hied past, the musicians hastened to put away their instruments aud join their
several gangs. They go to their work as to a fete, with music to begin the day and
enliven their departure ; and come rain or sunshine, they bear it cheerfully and joj--
fully. Everything is done that can make duty attractive and induce a constant habit
of performing it. The children are not pushed forward with rudeness ; great care is taken
not to bruise these poor young hearts, already frozen by neglect or withered by vice
before they knew anything of life ; they are carefully tended, and led on by degrees to
goodness with gentleness and trust. It is considered a great privilege to be in the
band, and one only earned by hard work and good conduct.
•
The heart first, the physical i^owers next, and then the intellect ; this
is the order at Mettray.
K the colons of Mettray are the object of a constant solicitude while
264 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
tliey remaiu at the colony, they are scarcely less so after they have left
it. M. IJemetz holds that there is.no good penitentiary system without
j)atrouag'e, since the good moral iirinciples yrhich may have been im-
planted by the discipline of the prison, still weak and wavering, need
some extraneous support to guard against the danger of a fresh fall. He
considers that it is the same with the sicknesses of the soul as with those
of the body, where the moment of convalescence is the most critical of
all, and requires the greatest care. On this principle, the patronage of
Mettray is kept up not only during three years, as is the custom in other
similar institutions in France, biit its duration has no limit ; it is, in effect,
a real adoption. Provision is made against whatever might be of a nature
to compromise the future of the youths who have been discharged from
the colony. Thus they need have no fear as regards want of employ-
ment, in consequence of which the workman who has no resource but
the product of his labor is too often exposed to all the suggestions of
want and misery. Whenever the liberated colons are without work,
they return to 3Xettray, where they know they are ever welcome, on
the sole condition that they work with energy; for M. Demetz regards
it as of the last importance that they preserve those industrious habits
which they formed at the colony. They are not permitted to leave until
a new place has been found for them. So, also, when they are sick, they
are received into the infirmary of the colony. Nor is it requisite to such
admission that the ex-colon be so sick as to make it necessary that he
should keep his bed ; it is enough that he be unable to devote himself
steadily to work, M. Demetz is of the opinion that there are indis-
positions which compromise the future of the workman more than a grave
disease. In such cases, the workshop is closed against him because he is
not well enough to labor, and the hospital refuses him admission because
he is not sick enough to be nursed ; but Mettra}^ willingly opens its gate
and extends to him the needed relief.
Upon the whole, after the widest and most careful inspection which
two days would ])ermit me to make, I have no hesitation in saying that
Mettray appeared to me the most i)erfect, the most complete, the most
thoroughly wrought out, and the most effectively^ applied system of
reformatory discipline that had ever fallen under my notice. The
late eminent recorder of Birmingham, England — Matthew Davenport
Hill — whose opportunities of observation were far larger than mine,
likened Mettray to a great and beautiful work of nature, rather than to
any })roduction of man. Nor to one who has been there and seen the
wonderful creation will this comparison seem much, if at all, ex-
aggerated. Th(! resemblance is found both in its gradual development
and in tlie discovery of iresh perfections the more closely it is ex-
amined. iMerything about tlie establishment, whether in the labor,
tlte <lis(;i|)liii<*, the instruction, or the rcc^reations — the larm, the work-
shop, the school, the <;huicli, the playground, the <lornutory, the inlirm-
ary — all, all, without ex(;ei)tion, seemed ti> <'onverge to one ])oint, and
to liave Ix'cn ma<le to yield their tribute to the great work in liand —
the rescue and salvation of these young criminals, their restoration to
society, with the i>o\ver and the will to ])ursuc a career of honorable,
thougii, percharu-e, <piiet and unheralded usefulness. The genius of M.
J)emetz has shown itself ecpuil to every exigency, every emergency of
liis work; and in its power of originating expedients to re-awaken,
almost to create virtue, tjiough, being human, it must liave a limit,
it certainly has not yet rea(;hed that limit; for it is still teeming with
contrivances to tin* same benciliceut and godlike euil. F<t:'ile princeps
among relbiinatory men is the i)osition reatlily yielded to him by ilie
TRAINING SCHOOL FOR OFFCERS AT METTRAY. 265
whole body of his fellow- workers. Let the laurel be worn by him. whose
merit has won it.
And what has-been the result of this great work*? Mr. B6rcngcr de
la Drome, in his day the highest authority in Franco on penitentiary
matters, says that, prior to the founding of Mettray, the proportion of
relapses among juvenile criminals was 75 per cent. What is it among
the eleves of Mettray ? Not more than 5 per cent, at the outside. Well
does Mr. Sauvestre, in view of this state of things, exclaim, " Is not
Mettray a living witness against the old doctrine of repression ? What
would these children have become, if sent, as had previously been the
custom, to the central prisons, those educational establishments whence
the inmates often go out worse than they came inf The founder of
Mettray has substituted education for punishment; to what saving
.effect may be seen even in the very imperfect delineation which has just
been given. What precious fruits of the same kind might not our
prisons for adults show, if education — meaning by that term not simply
scholastic instruction, but a complete system of industrial, mental, and
moral training — were combined with punishment, and reformation every-
where made, as at Mettray, the real and supreme aim of the treatment!
After completing my observations at Mettray, I said to M. Demetz,
" You have created the best reformatory in the world." Promptly, and
with a beautiful modesty, he replied, "It is because I have had the
best assistants in the world." The answer was no doubt true, but not
the whole truth ; for the helpers of M. Demetz have been his own crea-
tion, as well as every other part of the establishment. This leads me to
speak, though it must be all too brielly; of a most interesting depart-
ment of the colouy, its preparatory school, {ecole preparatoire^) as it is
called. This right arm of Mettray was created even before the colony
itself. After the original buildings had been completed, M. Demetz,
impressed with the just idea that the task of changing bad boys into
good ones* was not one to be committed to the first comers, spent an
entire year, as he informed me, aided by his devoted colleague, the
Count de Conrteilles, in training some twenty young men to be asso-
ciated with them as assistants in their work. This school, enlarged in
its curriculum and its number of pu]iils, and embracing a three years'
course of study and training, has l>een kept up ever since. It is a regular
normal school, specially designed for Mettray, but supplying assistants
to other similar establishments. So essential does M. Demetz consider
this school to the complete success of his work, that he has been often
heard to say that if it were closed, the colony would be destroyed. It
is through \t that he obtains those devoted and eflicient sub-oflicers, for
whom Mettray has ever been distinguished ,• and through it, esi)ecially,
he secures that unity of sentiment and of action, so indispensable in his
great work of moral transformation, whereby a desolate and barren
wilderness is made to rejoice and blossom as the rose. How devoted
his helpers are to his person and his work will appear from two simple
facts which may be told in few words. M. Demetz had secured for one
of his agents a place where the work was lighter and the pay larger,
and was Jiimself accompanying the young man to introduce him to his
new employer. While on the way, overcome by a sentiment of longing-
regret, he said : "M. Demetz, it is impossihle for me to leave Mettray;"
and despite all persuasions, back he went to his smaller remuneration
and his harder, rougher work. The other fact is this: During the late
Franco-German war, the live stock of Mettray — cattle, pigs, and horses
*And, a fortiori, Lad 7iicn into good ones. E. C. W.
266 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
— bad been taken by the enemy ; the revenues of tbe colony were in
great measure cut off; and half the members of the staff had felt it a
duty to give themselves to the military swvice of the country. The
half who remained, after consulting together, went in a body to M.
Demetz, and said : " Sir, we know your embarrassments, and will gladly
do double work and accept half pay till the state of things shall im-
prove." M. Demetz thinks, and rightly no doubt, that such devotion
could be secured only through the ccole preparatoire^ and that mere
chance employes would be incapable of such self-sacrifice. Mr. Hill,
after a visit to Mettray in its earlier years, gives his impression of the
agents in this strong language: "The founders have breathed their
own earnest benevolence into the hearts of their coadjutors. Seldom
have I felt so deeply interested as in the hours I spent with these
amiable and intelligent young men. Their devotion to their employ-,
ment, their perfect knowledge of all the principles on which tlie institu-
tion is founded and of the best means for carrying these principles into,
effect, their enthusiastic attachment to the generous men to whom
France and the world owe this noble establishment, the kindness evinced
in their demeanor toward their wards, and the grateful spirit in which
their notice of these poor lads w\^s received, left me no room to doubt
that I was among realities, not surrounded by mere shows and forms."
Every recent visitor at Mettray wdl agree that the venerable recorder
of Birmingham has as truly described the agents of to-day as he doubt-
less did those of twenty-five years ago. * -
I am unable to state what proportion of the current expenses of the
colony is met by the labor of the colons; certainly not the whole, as at
the reform school at Euysselede, Belgium. M. Demetz says that some
persons allege that 3Iettray in too dear. To this he replies, first, that
Mettray does a great deal of good ; and, secondly, that, in the matter
of economy in charity, there are cheap purchases that ruin, as there are
costlj" ones which enrich. It is the unusually large proportion of agents
which has made the cost at Mettray high, as compared with other
French reformatories; but it is to that also that the large percentage of
reformations is chietiy due. The motto of Mr. Demetz on this subject
is, "Eeform as cheaply as you can, but reform.''''
On the same premises as the colony, but in no way connected with it,
]\r. Demetz has organized an institution as novel in its plan as it is
beneficent in its scoi)e and action. This he calls a house of paternal
correction, {mainon patcrncUe.) An unhappy father, who foresaw nothing
but ruin Ibr his son, one day said U) JM. Demetz: "You have created
an admirable institntion for rescuing from vice the children of the poor;
can you do nothing to save those of the rich V Instantly his fertile
mind con(;<'ived the idea of the maimn pafcrncUc. This is, in fact, a col-
lege for the reception and treatment of those sons of the np])er and
wealthier classes, with whom, because of their idleness or insubor-
dination, tlie ordinary apidiances of college discipline can a('comi)lish
nothing. I'.efoie M. Demetz f<,unded his institution, which might be
named a college for insnbordinates, expulsion from the ordinary college
was almost the. only s(^vere measure that could be employed. But so
far from l)eing a tenor, it was often welcomed by the idle youth as a
relief from what was felt by him as an intolerable burden. When one
,of these youths was reminded by a ))rofessor that, if expelled liom one
college, Ihi c«»ul(lbe received info n() oilier in l^'iaiice, his ]>rompt r(^i)ly
was, "So much tlie. better; 1 shall then Inive a vacation without end.'^
The Hystein employed in the niaisoii iKdcrnclle is that of absolute isola-
tion, each student [ia\ing two cells — one for study, the other for sleep —
MAISON PATERNELLE OF METTRAY. 267
■with a small exercise-yard adjacent. After being placed in this estab-
lishment, he continues his lessons the same as at the college from which
he has been temporarily removed, under competent professors obtained
from the neighboring- college of Tours. He sees none of his fellows, and
feels no evil influence from their presence. Thus, left wholly to his own
reflections, he retires within l^imself, and, generally, from one to two
months is found a sufficient time to subdue his spirit, to change his
habits, and to restore him to the institution from which he came, the
joy and -pride, instead of being, as before, the grief and shame of his
family. Nothing is found so efficacious in conquering idleness as the
discipline of the maison lyaternellc. Labor, which has been an object of
aversion, becomes there a necessity and a consolation to such a degree
' that books are taken from the students as a punishment for negligence,
and the want of occupation so weighs upon thejn that they soon beg to
have them restored. Th«ir studies are thus pursued without interrup-
tion, and with greater regularity, because free from all distractions,
than under the ordinary conditions of scholastic life.
On the arrival of a pupil M. Demetz exhorts him to a quiet and obe-
dient behavior, assuring him*tbat he has no quarrel with his persori,
but only with his faults. He says to him: "Your god-father has an-
swered "for you before God; I answer for you to your family; show
yourself docile, and you will have another friend to love you ; resist,
and you will be subdued."
The youth knows perfectly that his family has given all its authority
into the hands of M. Demetz, and that if, after the first trial, he again
fails in duty, he will be brought back io il^QmaisonimternelleaviCi subjected
to a discipline far more rigorous than before. As the feebleness of the
parent is too often the cause of the evil to be cured in his son, M.
Demetz says that as soon as the latter is convinced that he can no
longer count upon impunity, he performs with promptness and alacrity
every duty required of him. It is at the moment when the college
vacation begins that the discipline of the maison j)aternelle is most effi-
cacious. When a pupil has been idle through the year, M. Demetz
says to him on his arrival, " You have rested while your comrades
worked ; it is but just that you should work while they rest." More
logical than one would suppose, the youth is apt to be strongly im-
pressed by this view, and generally goes to work at once, with ardor, to
make up for lost time. M. Demetz promises him that if he applies
himself diligently to his studies, he will grant him some days with his
family before his vacation ends and he is sent back to resume his place
with his fellow-students at college. Fear on the one side, and filial love
on the other, cause the inmates of the maison imterneUe to return to
their institutions animated, for the most part, with better sentiments
and higher purposes.
For eighteen years the maison patemeUe has been doing the special
work for which it was created. During that time more than nine hun-
dred youths have experienced the wholesome pressure of its discipline,
and perhaps— for it has long been well known to the young collegians
of France, and has been a terror to the lazy and the vicious — a still
greater number have felt the silent influence of its deterrent power.
Of the nine hundred who have actually been within its chastening
grasp, stern it may be, yet wisely loving, a number, not great in propor-
tion to the whole, have been returned a second time; a very few have
thrice made proof of its friendly severity. But the mass have been
restored to a right mind and a right conduct by a few weeks or a few
268 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS
months of its paternal discipline; and the remainder, with here and
there an exception, after a second or third experience.
Some sentences were found written on the bottom board of a table-
drawer in the room of one of the inmates of the maison paternelle, ad-
dressed to the person who should succeed him in the occupancy of the
room. They appear to have been penned by one who had shown him-
self rebellious, to a certain extent at least; but they so clearly reveal
the good effect of the discipline, even upon a stubborn youth, that I
begged a copy of M. Demetz, who kindly caused one to be made for
me. I append a translation, which cannot fail to interest the reader.
Reflections found inside his fahle-draiver a/ta- the departure of student No. 112.
Courage, my friend, courage ! Expiate your fault, but do not abuse tbe pardon of
your family. Take my advice, "svliicli is the result of experience. You will gain noth-
ing by obstinacy, except to be reduced to the necessity of enlisting ; it is what I have
done. I have enlisted for two years, whereas, if I had listened to my parents, I should
still have been happy. For you, at least, there is yet time. Euter at once on ttie
good way ; bear cheerfully your punishment, and you may still be hai)py. Keep ray
words ever in memory, and think of the unhappy friend who gives you these few
coimsels before leaving the rnaison jjaiei'nelle. ^York, behave well, and you will one
day be happy. It is au old companion in misfortune, on the point of departure, who
gives you this counsel. Courage! A friend,
D. M.,
Fortner 2^t'pi^ of the College of Tours, in the htUes-lettres class ;
drummer in the hand of said college ; enlisted volunteer.
On the day of my departure M. Demetz had all the colons called
in at noon from their farm-work, and had given orders that they should
dress themselves in their Sunday attire and i)repare for a formal review.
]Sro intiumtion had been given of this, and as we were lingering at the
dinner-table, after the repast was ended, I was surprised to hear the en-
livening strains of military music. Hastening, as we all did, to the front
porch, my surprise was increased as I looli;ed out upon the scene that
presented itself to the eye. From the rigging of the large ship that
graces the center of the hollow stpiare, around which cluster the cottages
of the colony, a hundred Hags Hoated gaily in the breeze ; and sur-
mounting all, the colors of France and the United States, lovingly in-
tertwined, waved from the mast-head. So may they ever wave, the
emblem of peace and good M'ill, the ])ledge of a generous rivalry in
labors directed to the progress of man in knowledge, virtue, justice,
haj)])iness, civilization ! Slowly approacliing, Avith measured step and
gallant l)earing, to the sound of martial music — drum and bugle and
clarionet — were seen the hundreds of boys who form the colony, every
liouschold with itsown standaid,eachof a ditVerent color; the boysdressed
in check trousers and blue cotton blouses, witli caps and sabots; the
musicians Icatliug the colunm, and the lire brigade bringing up the rear,
the latl(!r armed with helmets, hooks, hatcliets, and all the weapons used
in coiiiliiiliiig the devouring element. Arrived in front of the mansion,
the wholes company halted and remained in ])osition, while M. Demetz,
witli a i\'\v others, ])assed in front of the entire line. The review com-
l)h.'ted, the column again took uj) its lin(Mif march and made the circuit
of the s(juare, when it was disbanded, and the boys separated to change
their (;lotIiing and leturn to their accustomed labors; and I, rejoicing
in all I had seen, and sorrowing that my stuy might not be prolonged, re-
traced my stejjs lo 'J'onrs, anil thence to I'aris.
§ 15. J'titroudf/r. — The work of aiding dis(;harged prisoners has not
taken root so widely in I^'rance as in lOngland, llolhmd, Bavaria, and,
])crhaps, some other I'^uropean countries; but as far as it goes it is well
PATRONAGE IN FRANCE. 269
organized, and eminently successful. This is particularly the case with
the oldest association of the kind in France, and possibly in the world —
the "Patronage Society for Yoniif^ Prisoners and Li1)erated Juveniles of
the Department of the Seine." The conception of that eminent publicist
and i)hilauthropist, M. Ch. Lucas, it was organized in 1833, and is,
therefore, just forty years old; and it is as vigorous and active to-day as
at any period of its long and useful career. A single fact will place in the
clearest light its extraordinary success: Prior to the formation of the
society, sixty-five out of every hundred of the juveniles discharged from
the Eoquette relapsed and were rearrested within a fewunonths alter their
release, and of the whereabouts and destiny of twenty-five more nothing-
was known ; whereas now the relapses and recommittals have been
brought down to between five and seven per cent., a result mainly, if
not solely, due to the wise and efficient labors of the association. The
aim of the society, as stated by its able and accomplished secretary, M.
Victor Bournat, in his last report, is: "To save the child who has
committed one, or, perchance, several offenses, ^tithout knowing
their gravity, and who sees all doors, sometimes even that of the pater-
nal dwelling, closed against him ; to receive him into a house, which
thenceforth becomes his family-home ; to provide for him a little outfit
of clothing; to find for him a pkce in some workshop, with a good mas-
ter, where he may commence or continue an api^renticeship ; to watch
over him till the moment when he shall become able, by his labor, to
provide for himself; to re-animate and support his courage amid the
many trials of his new position ; to teach and guide him in the dis-
charge of his duties to God, his parents, and his master; to aid him,
when he shall have become a workman, in starting a business for him-
self; to assist him at the moment of his marriage; and, in short, to
make of him another master, who shall be ready to receive and help
those who, like himself, may have wandered from the path of rectitude."
A noble aim, and nobly carried into effect ! As intimated in this ex-
tract, the society has a house — a home — into which it temporarily receives
its wards on their liberation, and fits them out for their career as ap-
prentices. It is a large establishment, well appointed and well kept in
all respects, with offices, chapel, dormitories, wardrobe, gymnasium,
&G. Here are kept the clothes of all the wards of the society appren-
ticed in different parts of Paris ; here all their washing is done ; hither
they come every Sunday to replace their soiled with clean garments, and
to spend the day in receiving religious and scholastic instruction, in
singing, in gymnastic exercises, in social intercourse with each other
and with their patrons, and returning at night to the homes of their
several masters. Here also they find a home, and a welcome, and all
needed care when they are sick or out of employment. A master lately
said to M. Bournat : " I take care that the apprentice you furnished me
never fails to be present at your Sunday re-unions ; he always comes
back more gentle, more civil, more industrious." 1 passed an hour at
this establishment one Sunday morning, and left it filled with admira-
tion and delight at the precious fruit yielded by this charity.
The Protestants of Paris in 18G9 organized an association under the
nameof "Societe de Patronage i^ourles Prisonniers Liberes Protestants,"
of which Pastor Robin is the active secretary, a man of large views and
large heart, who is thoroughly devoted to this work. He has just issued
his first report, which shows good and effective work. So far not more^
than five per cent, of the society's wards have relapsed. The members of
the society begin their work within the prison walls, w^here they labor
assiduously and successfully to give a right turn to the thoughts and
purposes of the prisoners.
PART FIFTH.
LESSONS-SUGGESTIONS -EECOMMENDATIOIifS,
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
CONCLUSION.
The congress of Loudon was fruitful in important and valuable les-
sons, i do not propose an exhaustive treatment of this point, but sim-
ply, in a single concluding chapter, to offer a few hints toward the in-
auguration, in the severa,l States of this Union, of a prison discipline
more rational, humane, and reformatory, that is to say, more Christian,
than. has heretofore been, or is now, generally applied in the manage-
m.ent of imprisoned criminals.
§ 1. The lirst thing taught by the congress, and that which lies most
upon the surface, is, that principles have a value denied to systems.
The Qongress developed all shades of opinion on the question of sys-
tems. It was unanimous, or nearly so, on the question of principles.
Mr-. Stevens, of Belgium, one of the ablest, most enlightened", and
most zealous of the partisans of cellnlar separation throughout the
whole period of imprisonment, and Count Sollohub, of Rnssia, who
holds that the isolation of man, or even the imposition of an obligation
of perpetual silence, is a contravention of the divine will, can yet cordi-
ally unite — did, in point of fact, unite — in a common declaration of
fundamental principles; principles which must interpenetrate and give
vitality to every system, or it will remain, cold, dead, barren. The rea-
son of this is obvious. Systems are but methods, processes ; principles
are living forces. Systems may change, do change, must change, with the
climate, soil, territorial extent, manners, customs, institutions, traditions,
I)rejudices of different countries; principles are roots, essences, powers,
without which here is neither life norenergy in any organization, physi-
cal or moral. Systems are temporary and perishable ; priucijiles eternal
and indestructible. Systems are human; jirinciples divine. The former
have their origin in the wisdom of man, which may err; the latter, in
the wisdom of Cod, wliic^li is unerring. Starting with the postulate, in
which the whole world is now agreed, that a chief aim of prison disci-
j)line is the reformation of (nimiiiMls, tlu^ essential princi])les which must
gui<h', quicken, aiul render fruitfid tliis great work, are : That ho\K^. must
be eaiiy i»lant('<l in the breasts of the prisoner, and kei)tthere as an ever
•living, r\<'r active power; that the piisoner himself must be the chief
agent in his own anu'udnu'.ut, and that, theiefore, his will must be
gained to that end, and his active ex<Mtions enlist«'d in its furtherance ;
that, while i)hysical force is not to be ex(;liuled, nu)i"al forces must be
made jiromiiu'ut, ami l)e substituted for the former in all cases where
.sucli substitution is lu-acticable ; that tlu^ feeling of selfrespect and per-
sonal dignity must be develojx'd and cultivated in the ])risoner to the
utmost extent possible, and that, conse(piently, his m:iidiood must be
respected, and all insult and needless humiliation withheld from him ;
PRINCIPLES SUPERIOR TO SYSTEMS SHORT SENTENCES. 271
that religion, educatiou, and labor must be made to contribute, in
harmonious combination, tlieii- powerful agency toward his moral
regeneration ; that both the power and the will to work, and .so to
earn and eat honest bread, -when he^ is discharged from i)rison, must
be imparted to him while he is still in prison ; and that society has
not done its whole duty to the criminal when it has punished
nor even when it has reformed him, but that, after his liberation, it'
owes hjui the still further duty of watching over and caring for him ; of
doing, in fact, all it may, to encourage him, to hold him to his good reso-
lutions, and to prevent his return to crime. These, in altered phrases,
are the principles adopted by the congress ; principles in which the advo-
cates of all systems uuitQd ; principles which may be applied, in their
integrity and all their regenerative force, under the separate system, the
congregate system, the social or the silent system, the system of shop-
work or of farm-work. They may be applied, they vuist be applied,
whenever and wherever the work of reformation is sincerely and earn-
estly taken in hand ; for they are principles which belong to human na-
ture iu every age and every zone. What results ? The necessity for a
radical and comprehensive change, iu a direction to be immediately
pointed out. The great controversy, among prison reformers, has been as
to the superior excellence and efficacy of the separate system and the asso-
ciated silent system, of which Philadelphia and Auburn stood forth as
the representatives ; and the controversy has been waged chiefly on the
platform and in the press, through speech spoken or written. Let the
locality and the instrument of this controversy now be changed. As re-
gards the former, let the hall of debate be replaced by the prison; and as
regards thei latter, let deeds be substituted for words. Let the partisaua
of bot^ systems, of all systems, drop the war of words, and exert all their
ability, all their energy, all their skill, all their resources of whatever
kind, in broad, hearty efforts to apply the principles, in which all are
agreed, to the workof changing criminals into honest men, spoliators into
producers, drones into busy toilers in the hives of industry. Let all
work iu their own way and with tools of their own choosing, unchallenged,
unmolested. I, for one, have no doubt that all will show good work. I have
my own thoughts as to which will show the best; but I am perfectly
willing to abide the issue, and will joyfully cast in my lot with those who
are most successful iu accomplishing the end, which all desire and all
propose, with, I doubt not, equal sincerity and in all good conscience.
Most of us in this country have, I am persuaded, undervalued cellular
separation, which is good and useful in its proper place and function. I
think it ought to be applied to all the arrested and indicted, imprisoned
before trial. I think it may be usefully applied to first offenders as a
short, sharp, vigorous notice, and with a view mainly to deterrent effect.
And I am equally clear that it should form a first stage in any and all
systems for the reformatory treatment of criminals of the higher grades ;
and that in that case it should be applied with iv considerable degree of
elasticity, so that it may be made longer or shorter within limits of a far
wider range than is given to it in the Croftoii system as uow i>ractis'ed
iu Ireland.
§ 2. No reform is today more essential to the introduction of a real
and eff'ective reformatory prison discipline than such a change in our
criminal laws as will do away with constantly repeated short sentences
for minor offenses, which are as constantly repeated by the same per-,
sons. I need not here repeat what was said in the official reports handed
in to the congress from the different countries represented iu it ; nor
what was uttered in debate upon the floor; nor the arguments so well
272 INTERNATIONAL TENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
put ill tlie papers furnished by the Liverpool magistrates and by Mr.
Barwick Baker. But one voice came from all quarters, which was, that
these- ever- recurring sentences of only a few days' or a few months' im-
prisonment, inflicted scores, yes, hundreds of times, on the same indi-
vidual for the same or similar peccadillos, constitute an evil of grave
character, which requires the early and serious attention of the law-
making power. No one put this matter more sharply, and it would be
impossible to put it more truly, than Count Sollohub, in his report for
llussia, viz, that " not only do these short imprisonments for trivial
offenses do no good, but they create criminals by profession." One short
imprisonment for such misdemeanors is well, but it should be a sharp
and keenly-felt admonition, of a character to be really " a terror to
evil-doers j" and with the understanding, very clearly imparted to the
culijrit, that a second offense, even though of no greater gravity than
the first, would be sure to be visited with a far heavier and more pro-
longed punishment. The sentence should then be made long enough
for reformatory processes to take effect: and in this work, time, and a
good deal of it, is an essential element ; for idle, vagrant, and, in most
cases, drinking habits are to be broken np, and replaced by those of
steady industry and absolute sobriety ; in a word, the wholebeut and
current of the life are to be changed. If it should be objected that a
long sentence is out of all proportion to a trifling offense, the reply is,
that is not the point. It is not a question of so much suffering for so
much transgression ; reformatory prison discipline rises far above such
vindictive and retaliatory considerations. It is a question, first, of the
effective protection of society, but much more, of the salvation of the
man ; and whatever others may say, the man himself, on whom this
saving work has been wrought, will thank you to the day of his death
for any degree of kind and wise severity that may have been found
necessary to that result.
§ 3. There is a principle of criminal law, not yet accepted by legisla-
tors, and therefore not incorporated into the criminal codes, but ap-
proved by many of the deepest and wisest students of penitentiary
science — practical men as well as theorists, those who have studied that
science in the prison as well as those who have studied it in the closet —
the introduction of which into our penal legislation would not only meet
the objection mentioned in the last section, but greatly facilitate the im-
portant reform there suggested. I refer to the imposition of indefinite
sentences instead of time-sentences, under which:;the prisoner would be
released only on satisfactory evidence of reformation, and not as the re-
sult of mere lapse of time. 1 have said that some of the best thinkers
and workers in this department of social science have given their adhe-
sion to this princii)le. Among these may be named Hill, Maconochie,
and Miss Carpenter, of England; Despine and Bournat, of France;
(luillaume, of Switzerland ; and J )wight, Sanborn, and I>rockway, of the
Unitrd States. These names aie not the symbols of a dreamy fanati-
cism ; tiicy represent calm thought, careful iM(|uiry, cautious and solid
Judgmetit ; they are names of the liighest authority in their respective
countries, and some of tiu'iii are, known and inlluenlial far beyond the
limits of the lands that gave tlu'm birlh. \)v. l)esi)inc goes so far as to
say that the ai)plieal ion of this i»rine,iple will be<'omeanecessity, whenever
a really reformatory i»rison diseii)line comes to be generally introduced
and jmisued in sohei- earnest. jMaconoehie's idea was ]»eenliar. lie did
notjtropose tlu'. iinpcjsition of a sentenee indefinite in form, but oidy in op-
eration and effect. This sentence took the shape of marks; so many
huiulred or vSO many thousand goo<l marks, to be earned by industry,
INDEFINITE SENTENCES. 273
Studious liabits iu scliool, and general good conduct, as the condition of
his release. Bat there was a further peculiarity in his system. In it
marks had a financial as well as a moral value, lie would give nothing
to prisoners beyond bread and water and the roughest sleeping accom-
modations, except what they earned and paid for. So his marks were
made to rei)resent money, as well as progress towards liberation. They
were so adjusted that a prisoner, by the utmost diligence and careful-
ness, the practice of which was thus made to spring from an inward im-
pulse, could earn such a maximum number daily. A certain tale of these,
say one-half or two-thirds, must go to supply his bodily and mental ne-
cessities, (for even his schooling had to be paid for;) so that only the sur-
plus, the savings, so to speak, counted towards his release. An inci-
dental advantage, of the highest value, is obvious at a glance, as a re-
sultant of this system. It taught the prisoner practically what econo-
mizing is, and made him feel its necessity and value. He might, if he
chose, spend the whole of his marks, that is, of his earnings, as he
went along, in wliich case he made no advance towards a discharge, but
became, by his own election, a prisoner for life; or he might deny him-
self many little comforts and luxuries, in which case, on the other hand,
the hour of liberty, the sweetest possession of man, was constantly ap-
proaching, and that with comparative rapidity. What has thus far
been said has been upon the assum])tion that the prisoner earned his
maximum of marks. But there is a further and no less important view.
If he was idle or disobedient, and only earned marks enough for his
support, he made himself a life prisoner as effectually as if he had earned
and expended the whole tale ; and always, be it carefully noted, by his
own free choiee. Captain Maconochie was never permitted to apply his
system in its entirety ; prescriptive ideas and red tape forbade such free-
dom of thought and action ; but the mere shreds of it, which were all he
was allowed to employ, wrought, incases without number, transforma-
tions on iSorfolk Island which seemed little less than miracles ; insomuch
that he could say, in words of strictest truth — for the testimony to that
effect is too strong and too respectable to warrant either doubt or denial
— "I found Jhe ishiud a turbulent, brutal hell ; Ileft it a peaceful, well-
ordered community."
I feel strongly inclined to favor this fundamental idea of the Macon-
ochie plan, for it seems to me that very few criminals could come out of
such a crucible without being purified and refined, at least to such a
degree as to become fair citizens and inclined to live by honest toil
rather than through depredations on the community. But Mr. M. D.
Hill, who has written most and written best on this question, for he has
written with a force of logic which has carried conviction to thousands
of minds, and which no adversary has yet been able to meet — propounds
the system of indefinite sentences pure and simple, that is to say, sen-
tences terminable only on satisfactory evidence of reformation, never
as the consequence of the mere flux of time. However consonant this
position ma^^ be to reason and natural justice — and I believe the accord
to be perfect, since, if the protection of society, as all men hold, is the
end of imprisonment and its justification, there is the same reason for
keeping as for putting a man in prison, so .long as you are morally cer-
tain that, if set at liberty, lie will go out to prey upon honest people, and
rob them of the quiet and the comforts to which their honest toil has
entitled them — it is extremely doubtful whether society will, or could,
ever become reconciled to so great a change on the sudden as that from
determinate to wholly indeterminate sentences. If, therefore, the prin-
ciple is ever to receive a practical application, it is likelv that it must
H. Ex. 185 IS
274 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
be uuder certain limitations; that the conits must assign a maximum
to the duration of the punishment, leaving a discretion, greater or less
in extent, to the authorities who are charged with carrying the sentence
into eflect. To this extent the principle is already measurably familiar
to the thought and the practice of our own and other countries. It is
the principle of all the sentences to our refuges and reform schools for
juvenile delinquents, where it is applied with the best effect. It is ap-
plied also, though to a less extent — for with us sentences are mostly dur-
ing minority — to similar institutions in foreign countries, and notably to
Mettray, the most successful reformatory in the world for young crim-
inals, where, if I do not mistake, the director has almost unlimited dis-
cretion. It exists in all countries where provisional or revocable liber-
ation is practised, under the ticket-of-license system or otherwise. It is
found in all those state prisons of our country where what are called
commutation laws are in force — that is, laws which allow an abbreviation
of the term of imprisonment, to the extent, in some States where the
sentence is long enough, of one third or more of the entire punishment,
and that without unj power of revocation. So excellent is the effect of
this remission, granted only as the fruit of industry, obedience, and
good conduct, that it is generally regarded as being the greatest ad-
vance in prison discipline ever made among us by any single measure.
The same principle is applied in the sentences to the work-house on the
state farm of Ehode Island, where a term of three years may be assigned
by the magistrate for even trivial offenses, while the governing author-
ity, the Board of Public Charities and Correction, is intrusted with the
power of releasing a prisoner whenever it may, in their judgment, be
done to his advantage and that of the community. The results in this
case have not, I believe, been all that was anticipated, but it is thought
that the disappointment is due to a faulty administration, the board
not having as yet found the right man for the place. This principle
was also similarly applied, for a year, to one class of female prisoners
in the Detroit House of Correction, under Mr. Brockway, with the most
encouraging results; but, unhappily, the supreme court of Michigan
decided the law to be unconstitutional under which these imprison-
onments had taken i)lace; not, however, because of the principle under
consideration, but upon some other ground.
So that it is not so much a new i)rinciple which is sought to be intro-
duced into our criminal laws and administration, as it is tlie application,
in a more con]prehensive, well-adjusted, thorough, and effective way, of
a principle already known, and whose value has been, to a certain ex-
tent, tested and recognized.
Undoubtedly before it would be safe and wise to give to this princi-
l)le the wid(; application proj)osed, even under the limitations which have
been named, some veiy ra(li(;al r(?forms must be introduced into our
X)rison systems ; for it would be little less than madness to attempt such
an expeiiment, witliout olliceis (jualified to undertake it, or an official
tenure permanent enough to con(Uict it to its normal issue.
§ 4. Centralization in every branch of the public administration —
that, for exaniiile, which embraces i)risons, as Mell as others — may
exist in various degrees. It may absorb all power; it may be wisely
and duly temj'eied with local authority; it may be feeble and languid,
the local overshadowing and dominating tlui general; or it may be
wholly wanting, with llie dilferent i)arts of the system, like so many
sej)arate grains of sand, unef)iiiiected by any organic princii>le or cohe-
sive foi'ce of whatever kind.
The last of theses i)ropositions describes the state of things gener-
CENTEAL AUTHORITY PERMANENT ADMINISTRATION. 275
ally — universally, indeed, as far as I know— existing among us. To the
best of my knowledge and belief, there is not a State of our Union in
which the various institutions looking to the prevention and repression
of crime constitute a unit, or even a homogeneous system, held together
and administered by a central power. Yet, without something of this
sort, it is impossible that broad, thorough, permanent, fruitful prison
reforms should take place.
As long ago as 1850, a parliamentary committee in England expressed
the opinion, in reference to the county and borough prisons, that " it is
desirable that the legislature should intrust increased powers to some
central authority ;" a reform not yet carried out in that country. Move-
ments in this direction have been begun in several of our States, with
more or less breadth of scope, and with varying prospects of success.
I look upon it that, in any comprehensive re-organization of the prison
system of a state, the creation of a central authority, having general
powers of direction and control, is an essential feature. Without some
such power, ready at all times for deliberation and action, there can be
no consistent administration, no experiments conducted on any uniform
plan, no wide generalizations, no establishment of broad principles of
prison discipline, no application of such i^rinciples in the use of common
methods ; with it, all these things may be. Nor is such central and su-
preme authority at all inconsistent with local boards acting iu unison
"with it. But with or without local boards, either a general board or a
general superintendent, seems to be essentially requisite, to the end
that all the preventive, reformatory, and penal institutions of a state
may be molded into one harmonious system ; its parts mutually an-
swering to and supporting each other, the whole animated by the same
spirit, aiming at the same objects, and subject to the same control, yet
without the loss of the advantages of voluntary aid and effort, where
such are attainable and of the right kind, and with the co-operation of
local boards, if they should be deemed desirable.
England, as before stated, is without such a system, so far as her
county and borough jails are concerned, though possessing it in the
management of her convict prisons. Switzerland suffers, as we do,
from the jealousy and power of local administrations; while in some
other of the continental states of Europe, possibly in most of them, cen-
tralization is in excess.
§ 5. Another reform, equally essential to a genuine reformatory prison
discipline, is the elimination of partisan politics from the control of our
prisons, and the creation of a permanent administration for each.
There is scarcel}^ a State — Pennsylvania is probably the most conspicu-
ous exception — in which political influence is not the dominating j)ower.
Too often the prisons constitute a part of the political machinery of the
State, and, in their management, the interest of the convict and the
community is sacrificed to the interest of the politician. This is the
bane of our penitentiary systems. It lies at the root of most of the
evils connected with them, and, in particular, it is the cause of that in-
stability in the tenure of office and want of permanence in the execu-
tive administration, which render improvement difficult and perfection
impossible. The utility of party politics is freely acknowledged. Within
its proper sphere it has a generous and noble function. But there are
things which it touches only to mar. Keligion is one of these; educa-
tion is another; and surely the penal institutions of a state form a third,
since they combine the cliaracteristics of both, being at once, if they
are what they ought to be, religious and educational establishments.
An article framed by tlie Prison Association, of IS'ew York, was in-
276 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
corporate^ iuto tbe amended coustitution of that State by the conven-
tion of 1867. The constitution, as a whole, was rejected by the people,
and the prison article fell with the rest. At the session of the legisla-
ture following that rejection, it was offered in the form of a joint resolu-
tion, recommending its adoption to the people of the State, and passed
the senate by a unanimous vote, but failed to receive the action of the
lower house. The next winter it passed the senate again, with one
negative vote, but was rejected by a small majority of the assembly.
On the third trial, at the subsequent session, it passed both houses. It
must receive a second affirmative vote by the legislature, with a new
senate as well as assembly, after which it goes to the people of the State
for their suffrage. There is little doubt that the popular vote will be
favorable. But would its adoption be a reform 1 I think so ; and one of
the highest value to tlie cause of prison discipline in Ne w York, and,
through the great influence of that State, in the whole country. It
creates a board of tive prison managers, to be appointed by the gov-
ernor and senate, and to hold oftice for ten years, one vacancy to occur
every two years. This board is to be put in immediate charge of the
State prisons, and to appoint the principal officers, viz, warden, chap-
lain, physician, and clerk, but to have no power of removal, except for
cause, stated in writing, and after a fair hearing, that is, on impeach-
ment. The warden, being responsible for the state and discipline of the
prison, and to be held rigidly to that responsibility, is to have the sole
power of appointment and removal of his subordinates, the agents who
are to execute bis will ; subject, as a matter of course, to his general
responsibility to the board. The managers are to have no salary, but
are to appoint a secretary, who will, it is understood, receive a compen-
sation that will command the very best talent in the market. The
board is invested, by the proposed article, with no direct power over
the other pena or reformatory institutions of the State ; but, as the
intention of ts framers was to make, ultimately, the whole system a
unit, it provides that the said board shall i)ossess such powers and
perform such duties in regard to all the other penal and reformatory
institutions of the State as the legislature may from time to time direct.
From the above statement it will be seen what an immense advance
would be gained to prison reform by the incorporation of the proposed
amendment into the constitution of New York. The administration
would be at once lifted out of the slough of politics, and made abso-
lutely i)ermanent, except in cases where incompetency or nmlfeasance
should make the removal of the head necessary to the proper govern-
ment and efliciency of the i)rison committed to his charge. At present
the state of things is, almost everywhere in our country, quite the
reverse of this. Both ai)i)<)intmeiits and removals are made on i)arty con-
sideiations chiefly, if not solely. JNIen aie inconsiderately idaced in office
without refeicnce to their fitness; and they are remorselessly removed
from office as soon as they liave leained — often befoic tiiey have learned —
their duty. C:an it be expected that we should haxe elfective service on
su<;h conditions? Can it be exi)ected tliat men will do their duty
elliciently and honestly, who know tliat, despite their utmost diligence
and fidelity, next week, or next month, or next year, their ])laces will be
taken from tlxni and given toothers ? Would nu'rcantiU; houses, woulil
banking and insnran(;(! coni|)anies, would raiboad corpoiations, be willing
toeniph)^ theii- agents on tiiis ])lan"i? To ask sueii a(iuestion is to answer
it. We (•(jmi)lain of the inelli<'ien(;y and corruption of our ]»rison ollicials ;
yet we could not ilevise a scheme of administration bett<'r adapted to
I)rodiu;e these evils tliaii the one actually employed. Would not men be
PREVENTIVE INSTITUTIONS. 277
almost more than human who, under such circumstances, would do their
duty faithfully and eiiectively f
Happily, the prison systems of the Old "World are not burdened with
this weight nor impeded by this obstruction. I made special inquiries
upon this point, and satisfied myself that there is not a country in
Europe in which political influence is felt as an evil, so far as prison ad-
ministration is concerned. Nor was there anything so incomprehensi-
ble to gentlemen connected with prison affairs in those countries as this
state of things among us. It was a perpetual wonder to them that
anything could be accomplished in this department under such circum-
stances, and especially that so much good work could be done as they
freely gave us credit for.
§ 6. The machinery of our penal systems, if that is the right \vord by
which to reiH-esent the series or classes of institutions designed to effect
a diminution of crime, stands in urgent need of re-adjustment and reform.
As this branch of the general question lies in my mind, the series should
embrace five gradations, to wit, preventive institutions, juvenile reform-
atories, county jails, houses of correction, and state prisons, with append-
ages to each of the two last named, having the general character of the
Crofton intermediate prison. It will be necessary to compress what I
have to say on each class into a narrow compass. Before proceeding,
however, to sketch the system, a single preliminary observation may be
excused. It is this : As a preparatory step, laws ought to be enacted
by which the education of all the children of the State should be made
compulsory. It is far better to force education upon the people than to
force them' into prisons to pay the penalty of crimes, of which neglect
or ignorance has been among the chief causes.
(I. Preventive institutions, strictly so named, are the first in the series.
"We enter into life with various proclivities, which may be developed
and molded to virtue by education and the good examples and salu-
tary influences of home. But to what dangers are those exposed who
lack these advantages? And what multitudes of children, neglected
or abandoned almost from the cradle, are deprived of them, and hence
are exposed to all the fatal consequences of that deplorable condition.
If their first steps in the world are marked by a violation of the laws of
society it is, most frequently, because they have no knowledge of those
laws. JSTot a few of these unhappy beings never knew, and will never
know, to what parents they owe the light. One- fifth of them are orphans
in the fuU sense. Half the remainder have lost their father, a fourth
part their mother ; and nearly all who have known a family have been
dragged by it, either through example or direct incitement, to vice and
crime, so thut, in their case, the family relation is actually worse than
orphanage. These general statistics, which are repeated from year to
year, in different states and in all countries, aftbrd a full explanation of
the precocious wickedness of these unfortunates, who are, in some sort,
devoted, driven to crime by the circumstances of their birth or by their
early surroundings, so that society, which lays its strong hand upon
them the moment they disturb its repose, punishes them, in the
greater number of cases, for faults which, in reality, are not theirs ;
faults for whose commission society itself, which inflicts the punishment,
has a grave responsibility — graver than, perhaps, it is aware of, or is
willing' to admit; for, if it had been awake to its duty and been wise,
it might have prevented these violations of its laws at a cost far less thau
it is obliged to incur in punishing them. It is precisely at this point that
the proposition comes in — may I not say, that the duty presses itself
upon the public conscience? — for the establishment of preventive institu-
278 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
tions,!)^ whatever name tbey may be called — orpliau-asyluras; news-boys''
homes; industrial, truant, or ragged schools; children's aid associations;
juvenileasylams, homes for destitute children, &c.,&c. Institutionsof this
sort should be multiplied tenfold, a hundred-fold, tbroaghout the length
and breadth of the land. Into them should be gathered, to the last one,
the children of whom I have spoken — fatherless, motherless, homeless,
or worse than either, because their homes are but schools of vice, with
the parents for teachers! — into these shelters and retreats should they
be gathered to receive that mental, moral, religious, and industrial train-
ing, not otherwise attainable by them, and thence to be sent out, in due
time, to good places on farms or in the workshop, where they would
grow into virtuous and useful citizens, adding to, instead of preying
upon, the i^roductive industry of the country. I could wish for time and
space to develop the ideal of such institutions, as it lies in my thought,,
but can only, in the most general terms, express the opinion that all the
arrangements in them should be such as to cultivate industrious habits
and prepare their inmates for the stations they are afterward to till.
The kitchen, the wash tub, the sewing and knitting room, the workshop,
the farm, and, above all, the school-room, together with such recreations
as may be suitable to their years, should occupy the time of those who
find a home there ; and this home should be, though tidy and attractive,
yet of the plainest character, the counterpart, as near as may be, of the
homes of farmers or mechanics in moderate circumstances, such as they
th(^mselves will be likely to have when they become fathers or mothers,
with households around them.
Is the expense of such establishments made a point of objection? I
will repl}" to the objection by a short relation. In every district of Swe-
den, a country far advanced in her school system, there is an officer
called the " persuader," whose duty it is to look after children without
family, or whose parents are in prison. Those whom he persuades (and
his methods, it may be believed, are somewhat summary as well as po-
tent) are placed in special schools, where, instead of pests, they become
useful members of society. An Engliishman, visiting Sweden, asked
a Swedish gentleman whether the care of the children picked u[) in the
streets and highways was not costly ? The answer was : " Yes, it is
costly, but not dear. We Swedes are not rich enough to let a child grow
up in ignorance, misery, and crime, to become afterward a scourge to
society, as well as a disgrace to himseli'.''- There is a whole volume of
fact and philosophy in that curt reply. There can be no doubt that a
judicioua system of prevention^ such as here proi)Osed, would be the
liighest economy, for it would cut olf the most copious source of adult
crime, and thus elfectually stoi) an incx'ssant ami trcmen«lous drain upon
tlie wealth of the state.
h. The next class of institutions in tlie series is the juvenile reforin-
atory, intended, not lik(5 the i)recediiig, for children and youths who
are in danger of becoming criminals, but ibr those who h;ive actually
committed ciiminal ;icts. Tlu; constitution and design of this class of
establishments are so well known, and their m;inagement, i'or the most
j)art, 80 excellent, both in our own ami other countries, that it is quite
needless to enlarge u])on tluMU. All that I deem it necessary to do —
and in this I would jthice the highest ]iossible emplmsis — is to urge
their establishment in States wlieie they do not now exist, and their
miiltiplieation in all. Most l'hiroi»ean (;()iintries are far better i)rovided
with them than we ;ire, while in onr extendcul territory and unprece
dented <leiii;nnl lor hilioi' w(^ li!i\(' jidvantagis denied to them lor dis.
REFORMATORIE.S JAILS. 279
posing- ill a hopefal maurier of those who liave beou made the subjects
of their discipline.
Establishments appropriated to ijoiinfi pri.soners are, beyond all contra-
diction, the leadinj^point in every penitentiary system. To reform the
criminal masses, it is with childhood that we must commence ; it is to
the fountain-head that we must apply the purifying? ngencies. We too
often forget that it is these insubordinate and perverted children who,
at a later period, will form the generations of adult transgressors whose
crimes will disturb and terrify society.
It seems to me that there is great need of a class of reformatories or
juvenile prisons for boys and young men too old for the ordinary re-
formatory, yet tot) young for the state prison, though guilty of crimes
ordinarily punishable by sentence to that class of prisons. Au insti-
tution of this kind, called au industrial reformatory,^ is now in process
of construction at Elmira, New York.' This experiment is of the highest
importance to penitentiary science, and its progress will be watched
with a lively interest by tlie friends of prison reform in this and other
countries.
c. The third class is the county jail. I have no hesitation in declaring
the county -jail system of the United States a disgrace to our civilization :
and there is no department of our repressive agencies in which the hand
of reform is more imperatively needed. The great evil of the jail sys-
tem is the promiscuous intercourse of the prisoners with enforced
idleness, there being, in general, no classification, except that which
results from an imperfect separation of the sexes, and no labor at all.
From this unchecked association and want of employment it results
that our jails are but schools, maintained at the public cost, for in-
struction in vice, and for providing an unbroken succession of thieves,
burglars, and pYotiigates. The stripling who has been committed for
vagrancy or some trifling otfense, locked up without employment in
company with accomplished villains as idle as himself, listens to their
narrative of crime till he pants for the hour of liberty, that he may
commence the same bold and, to his childish imagination, brilliant
career.
The couuty jail is now made not only a place of detention for prison-
ers awaiting' trial, but a place of punishment for minor offenses, to which
persons are sentenced for periods varying from a day to two years, and
that so repeatedly that many get the name of revolvers, on account of
the frequency with which they come back. This class of prisons should,
in my opinion, be limited in its functions to two classes of prisoners,
viz: i. Persons under arrest and awaiting the preliminary hearing, or
under indictment and awaiting trial. 2. Persons undergoing their pun-
ishment for a first ofl'ense. Both classes should be subjected to the strict
cellular regime; the first because their punishment, as already ex-
plained in a former section, should be made strongly deterrent, a real
intimidation, and, therefore, should be undergone in a separate ward ;
the second, for reasons to be immediately explained.
It isa principleof criminal law that an accused person is to be presumed
innocent until he has been proved guilty. While there can be no doubt
that society has the right to subject its members, under certain circum-
stances, to preliminary detention, it is as undoubted a corollary from the
principle just stated that the exercise of this right ought never to take
on a penal character, and that the accused himself must be protected, as
well as the interests of social order. The sole object of such prelimi-
nary detention is to prevent escape and the possible defeat thereby of
the ends of justice; consequently it is but a precautionary measure,
which leaves untouched the ultimate question of guilt. It follows that
280 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
the person of the accused is a deposit, coutided to the magistrates
pending the decision of that question, to be returned to society, if he is
proved innocent, as pure and sound as M'heu received. Hence all the
care and consideration due to innocent citizens must be accorded to
these persons, so long- as the presumi)tion of innocence remains in their
favor. Hence, too, it follows that the accused and the convicted should
receive a treatment materially different the one from the other, and that
the prison for detention should be quite another thing than the prison
for punishment. The Eoman jurisprudence long ago distinguished be-
tween the accused and the convicted, calling the former the hostage of
justice,,the latter the slave of ijunishmeni. It also distinguished between
the places in which they were detained, naming the prison of the former,
career ; that of the latter, vincida pitblica; and distinctly declared that
the career was to be regarded simply as a place for detaining men, keeping
them safely, and not, like the vinculainihUca, for punishing them. The
supreme conclusion from this argument is, that persons under a charge
of crime, and while that charge remains still unproved, have a right to
be protected from all danger of contamination by their fellow-prisoners,
many of whom, no doubt, are guilty ; and this protection can be had only
through cellular separation. Even if the accused himself is willing, or
indeed anxious, to forego this protection, society owes such guardianship
to itself, for it cannot afford to have its members corrupted when it is
in its" power to prevent it. Another consequence flows from the argu-
ment,* it is that, except the deprivation of liberty, nothing in these
places of detention ought to be made to assume the aspect, the forms,
the alflictive austerity of the prison. The accused ought to enjoy in
them all the moral and material comforts that are consistent with their
safe custody.
Permanency in the administration of county jails, as of all other
prisons, 1^ regard as a matter of the highest importance. To this end,
where contiguous counties are small, or the i^opulation sparse, it might
be well to have two or more counties unite in the maintenance of a jail.
This would economize the expenditures, as well as lacilitate the change
suggested from an ever shitting to a ])ernianent administration.
d. Next in the ascending series would come a class of institutions oc-
cupying a position between the countyjail and the state prison. This
kind of prison is not at present numerous in the United States, al-
toii gli, properly organized and conducted, it would be, in some
resx)ects, the most important of all, es])ecially since, if multipled to the
extent it should be,. it would be the most numerously peoi)led, and its
occupants would be, for the most part, a class of criminals less steeped
in crime tlian the population of the slate prisons, and therefore more
open to refoiniatory influences. The few that are now found among us
are called by various names, l)ut the designation whi(;li seems most flt,
as best expressing their iiatuie and design, is that of House of Correc-
tion. I'lu-y would re('«'ive, for Ihc most ])art, tliose misdenu'anants who
now have Ihcii' })uiiisliment in the county jails, though with the crimi-
nal laws St) cliangcd lluit, alter a first oll'cnsc, which would still be pun-
ishable in the county jiiil, tlu^ sentences would be nuule long<'nough for
genuiiK! n'loi'nuitoi'v work to be wi'ought upon tlu'm. A number of
these liouses of cori-e(;tion, greater or less, according to territorial ex-
tent and ]>opid;ition, woidd he needed in every kState. They should be
disj)ersed through the State, at ])oints as conv^enient as possible to the
several counties for whose use each is iut<'nded.
The advantiiges to I)e expected from the general establishment of this
class of ]»risoiis nre: 1. The organi/.iitiou of each with a full staft of
HOUSES OF CORRECTIOX STATE PRISONS. 281
officers, and with all other appointineuts necessary for an effective per-
formance of the work assigned them. 2. The arran<^ement of build-
ings, cells, workshops, school-rooms, chapels, and the entire i)remises, Iq a
manner suited to a complete penitentiary system. 3. The introduction
of a comprehensive, well-adjusted system of industrial labor, 4. Di-
minished cost of maintenance, despite the increase of officers — owing-
in part to the earnings of the prisoners, and in part to greater economy
in the administration. 5. The relief of the common jails by the absence
of a large proportion of their worst inmates and those returning most
frequently, which would make the separate imprisonment of the rest
comparatively easy, and might even enable several counties to unite
their jails into one. 6. The relief of the State prisons by punishing in
houses of correction the younger criminals, and perhaps some others,
in whose cases extenuating circumstances may have appeared, and in
reference to wliom good hope may be entertained of benefit from the
■discipline of the house. 7. The crowning recommendation of the sys-
tem lies in the reformatory character to be impressed upon it. This,
indeed, is the great point to be sought through its establishment. But
the complete and effective introduction of a reformatory discipline into
any prison system makes exceedingly desirable, if it does not necessi-
tate, the accompaniment of the Crofton intermediate prison. To avoid
repetition, however, the treatment of this point will be i^ostponed till
the subject of state i)risons comes to be considered, when some hints
will be given touching the application of the principle to houses of cor-
rection.
e. Next and last in the series of establishments composing the prison
system is the state prison proper — called in England convict, and on
the continent central,. prisons — the receptacle of criminals convicted of
the gi^avest offenses against society and its laws, which are punishable
by imprisonment, and not by death. It is here, as T conceive, that re-
forms the most material are needed. Even supposing the system, in its
substratum, to remain unchanged, still important modifications are re-
quired to bring our state prisons into harmony with the true design of
a penitentiary sj'stem, considered as an agency for reforming fallen men
and women. A complete separation of their government from party poli-
tics; permanence in their executive administration; the employment of
w^ell-qualified officers; the abolishment of the contract system; the or-
ganization of convict labor on a principle which, in seeking to make the
prisons self-supporting, will seek still more to make their industries an
agency in reforming their inmates, and in restoring them to society
masters of a trade that will enable them, on their discharge, to earn an
honest living ; a broader moral and scholastic instruction ; a wider use of
rewards to industry and good conduct, so that the princii)!e of hope shall
be made to act with greater vigor than that of fear; and the making of
the reformation of the prisoners the real, as it is admitted to be the
proper, aim of the discipline. Such are the essential reforms needed in
the system, supposing it to continue, in other respects, what it is at
present.
But I am not satisfied with the system as it is, nor should I be even
with the reforms indicated in the last paragraph, for there are other
reforms needed to give even to these their full vigor and efficiency.
The fundamental reform required is, in my jutlgment, the introduction
and efficient application of the principle of progressive classification,
worked, in successive stages, on some well-considered mark system.
Three stages would seem to be essential to the best and most effective
working of this plan : the first strongly j)enal, to be undergone in
282 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
cellular separation ; the second less penal, bnt still distinctly par-
taking of that cliaracter, yet becoming gradually less and less so, on
tbe prisoner passing from class to class, as successive promotions are
earned ; while tbe tbird sbould retain but little of tbe penal character,
being intended partly to test the reality of the reformation effected
in the two preceding stages, and partly to train tbe prisoner for a time
before bis discbarge, under conditions similar to those of ordinary free
life, and so facilitate bis re-absorption into the ranks of honest industry.
This would place tbe prisoner's fate, during bis incarceration, to a great
extent, in bis own bands. It would enable him, through industry and
good conduct, to raise himself, step by step, to a position of increased
freedom and privilege, while, on tbe contrary, idleness and disobedience
would keep him in a state of coercion and restraint. This would place
the springs of conduct within instead of without, and make him act from
an inward impulse rather than from tbe api)licationof any external force.
It would effectually enlist his own will in the work of self-improvement,
which I look upon as an essential condition -of his reformation, for how
is it possible to change a bad man into a good one against his own con-
sent? Virtue is an outgrowth. It cannot be forced upon a man, but
must spring from a germ planted within, to be developed and brought
to perfection, by the assiduous care and nurture of the man himself; on
this condition, and no other.
The system thus brietly sketched is, for substance, what has been
heretofore known as the Irish, but is now generally, as of right it sbould
be, called the Crofton system, from the name of its founder; and this
last stage is bis intermediate prison, so named because it holds a mid-
dle ground between an imprisonment strictly penal and an imprison-
ment differing but slightly from the condition of freedom complete and
entire. It is essentially a probationary stage, its supreme aim being to
2)rove the prisoner, and so to be enabled, if tbe trial turn out satisfac-
tory, to give to an employer needing bis services the requisite guaran-
tee of industry and trustworthiness.
Here we touch the very heart and marrow of the question. The
Ijroblem is, how to effect the re-absori)tion of reformed criminals into
^■irtuous society ? An army of convicts is every year discharged from
])rison. Society distrusts and refuses to employ them, thereby compel-
ling a return to crime, and augmenting by its injustice the evil which
it aims to cure by its punisliments. llow can its distrust be conquered,
work secured to the convict, his salvation assured, and crime, as the
resulting conseciucncc, diminished if There are Just two elements in the
solution of this problem, and both, I think, essential — the reformation
of the convict and a guarantee of bis reformation tiiat shall be satisfac-
tory to the public. The reformation is to be effected by the processes
— industrial, educational, and moral — to which be is suljjeeted during
his imprisonment. Jbit the needed guarantee — bow is that to be had 1?
How is the moral cure of the prisoner to be /e.ste</ / For a test there
must be ; it is indisjiensable. The discharge<l convict, though reformed
:ind resolved to li\-e honestly, fails to get work; and lu^ fails so general-
ly, tliat failni-c is the nih; and success the exception, ^\'hy is this?
It is not that society is hardhearted; that it has no symjiathy with
misfortune; that, it is \ indietive and cinel ; I hat. it trami)les upon a man
meicly Ix'causi', he is down. Far from it. Hut socii^ty has no eonlidence,
in the liberated i)risoner; ami, what is more to the purpose, it has uo
guarantet' for its conlidcuiee. it, is the want of a guarantee that builds a
wall of granite b(;tw(;cn the, rcleasuil conviei, and honest bread. (Jon-
<juer the distrust of society, replace it with eonlidence, furnish the re-
CROFTON SYSTEM — INTERMEDIATE TRISONS. 283
quired guarautee that the man is trustworthy^ and all difficulty will
vanish. Every shop, every factory, every farm, every avenue of honest
toil will be open to his entrance. Bat the question is, how to abate the
prejudice felt by society toward the liberated prisoner; how to over-
come its dread of him; how to allay its fears; how to win for him its
contideuce and conciliate its regard ? There is but one way to accom-
plish this result. The convict must furnish proof, during his imprison-
ment, that it is safe to trust him ; safe to put him at the work-bench ;
safe to place in his bauds " the shovel and the hoe;" safe to admit him
to the fireside and the home-circle. In other words, his cure must be
tested before he is discharged. But I do not see how this can be done
where the system is one of nuiterial isolation to the end, nor any more
how it can be done where the system is one of moral isolation to the end.
There must be some field, some opportunity, for the trial. But such a
Theater, such a chance, can be afforded neither by the separate nor the
associate system, as generally conducted. Both systems must be in
part retained, in part discarded, in part changed. They must be so
modified that the passage from imprisonment to freedom shall not be,
as heretofore, by a single bound. The change must be so adjusted that
the former shall gradually, almost imperceptibly, melt into the latter.
The system must be such that the latter part of the imprisonment shall
be little more than moral, in which, as far as may be, all the arrange-
ments shall be those of ordinary life, with its trusts, its temptations, its
motives, its responsibilities, its victories over self and sin, its silent
toning up and strengthening of the whole character by the friction to
which the man is, in these various ways, subjected.
Our state-prison systems should be so organized as to have connected
with each prison, in one form or another, the substance of this inter-
mediate establishment, this stage of comparative freedom and of natural
training, which, at the same time, prepares the prisoner for full freedom,
and tests his fitness for it.
But how can this stage be aj^plied in the case of prisoners committed
to the houses of correction? These would scarcely be large enough to
warrant the establishment of an intermediate i:>risou in connection with
each. A single establishment of this kind would probably be sufficient
for most States, but if the State were both large and populous, two or
three might be necessary. The English convict establishments have
not yet added the intermediate prison ; nor does it exist in connection
with the system of county and borough jails, either in England or
Ireland. An eminent English philanthropist, INIr. Barwick Baker, is so
impressed with the importance of the intermediate prison in connection
with the English county and borough jail system, that he proposed,
four years ago, a plan for making an experiment in that direction, and
proffered his services to conduct the experiment himself. Mr. Baker is
a gentleman of large wealth and high social position, as well as of great
intellectual and business capacity, all of which are devoted, with in-
cessant and tireless zeal, to the promotion of i-eforms in every depart-
ment of social progress, but more especially to the work of juvenile
reformation and the improvement of prison discipline. He established,
I think, the first juvenile reformatory in England — certainly one of the
first — and, at his own cost, conducted it for a number of years in person,
and has maintained it ever since; his eldest sou, upon whom the fathers
mantle appears to have fallen, acting at present as superintendent. Nor
has he only been acquainted, for at least twenty years, with reformatory
work, but for a still longer period. he has been, as a magistrate and
visiting justice, conversant with the management and character of adult
284 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
criminals. These facts are stated to show that it is not as a mere
amateur, still less as a sciolist, that Mr. Baker speaks; but as a
gentleman of large experience and calm judgment, whose opinions,
on that account, are entitled to the highest respect. Mr. Baker
commences the statement of his plan with a citation from a late
report of the inspector of reformatories, in which that oflicer declares
that, on the occurrence of certain changes which he recommeads,
a considerable number of these' establishments might be given
up. In that case, Mr. Baker says that he would propose to have the
boys in his reformatory removed to others, and that the Home Office
accept the buildings and land as an intermediate prison or house of cor-
rection. The secretary of state for the homo department having full
power to remove a ijrisoner from any one prison to any other, and to
send him back at pleasure, Mr. Baker proposes that a few of the best
men in the jails of his own and the neighboring counties be allowed to
l^etition the secretary to remove them to the intermediate prison for such
time only as their conduct proves to be satisfactory. Their petition
should state that they had had the rules of the new prison read to them,
and that they understood and agreed to the terms of their removal. If
the secretary granted the petition, and the prisoner conformed to the
rules and worked with earnest good-will on the farm, he would continue
There for the remainder of his sentence ; if otherwise, he would be sent
back to the jail. Nor could he complain of this re-transfer as a hard-
ship, since it would be but a return to .his original sentence, to which
he had made himself justly liable by a violation of the conditions on
which his first transfer was granted. Those who remained through their
whole term would then return to the kinds of work on which they had
been lately employed, and to habits and a manner of life not unlike those
which they left behind them. If a man's release occurred at a season of
the year when employment was scarce, (a matter of much importance,
if care be had for the\liminution of crime,) he should be allowed to re-
main at the house till work could be found for him. So far, Mr. Baker
says, no new legislation would be required. But if the system, on trial,
]»roved a success, it would become necessary to secure the passage of au
act authorizing the release of the prisoner on license, to earn his living
under the watch of the police. Such license would not be a pardon, but
simply a permission for a man to earn his own living (^^ui'JUo good be-
havior, revocable at any time for any kind of misconduct, even for being
for any considerable time out of work, and so without visible means of
support. Tlie great objection to placing criminals in an intermediate
prison Mithout walls is that they would be likely io escape. To this Mr.
Uaker rei)lies that he well remembers the time when the greatest pains
were taken to search prisoners, even to the frecjuent unripping of their
beds, to ])revent the possibki secreting of a nail with which the cell-door
miglit be o])ened, or of a scrap of iron Miiich could be sharpened into a
knife. The safety of the jail was supposed princi[)ally to depend on
this sort of care and watchfnhiess. But every prisoner now has a knife
in his cell ; yet escapes oj" vioh'uce are mu(;h less frequent than in those
days. So .Mr. Ilakcr tak(\s notice that twenty years ago, if it had been
proposed to keep a nuinl)er of )M)ys iiiq)risone<l in a field with common
liedges i-onnd it and i)ul)lic footpaths runiiing through it, the person so
]»roposiiig would lia\(' l»eeii thought little, short of a lunatic;; yet this
system has proved a decided suc(M'ss. Mr, Baker claims to liave liad,
and c(!rtainly has had, large experience of men and boys, and he d<H5]ares
that he has no doubt that men would be far more easily restrained with-
CRIME CAPITALISTS. 285
out Willis than boys have beeu, for tlie reason that they commonly act
more upon reason and less on sadden impulse.
I have cited this proposition of Mr. Baker at some length, not because
it is api)licable, in all its phases and details, to the case in hand, but
because it contains the judgment, on the general question, of a man of
cool and cautious intellect and of a half century's observation, and more
particularly because of the important opinion, expressed in the last sen-
tence, as to the greater ease with which men, as compared with boys,
might be held under restraint by moral forces.
§ 7. A paper of great value, on the " Capitalists of Crime,"' was sub-
mitted to the congress by Mr. Edwin Hill, who has for many years made
the study of this subject a specialty. An analysis of this paper has already
been given in the second ]iart of the present report, which treats of the
work of the congress. But the subject is one of so much importance^
and to which so little attention has heretofore been given, that it seems
to me worthy of still further elucidation, and especially that it should
have a place in this chapter of " suggestions."
The contest between those who work j^nd those who plunder is nearly
as old as the world itself. Nor is there, I fear, much ground to hope for
its speedy termination. It is worth while to inquire whether society has
not made a mistake in its mode of carrying on this contest. Has it not
failed to recognize the fact that habitual criminality is-a craft, not car-
ried on solely by isolated individuals, but by a virtual, if not a formal,
organization, compf-ehending various grades and divisions of work, and
requiring the combined action of capital and labor just as other crafts
do, and being, like them, too, dependent for its continued existence on
this union 1 There are two well-defined classes enlisted in criminal oper-
ations, the capitalists and the operatives, those who furnish the means
and those who work the machinery; and the former are absolutely essen- .
tial to the latter. The crime-capitalists include at least four classes : 1.
The owners of houses and dens, affording to criminals habitations and
places to which they may resort for carousal and low enjoyments. 2.
The receivers or purchasers of stolen goods. 3. The pawnbrokers who
lend money on such goods. 4. The makers of burglarious and other
instruments used iu criminal operations. It is, to a great extent, the
practical impunity of these capitalists which supports the breed of
thieves, burglars, and counterfeiters. As the law now stands, a man
possessed of some capital may, with absolute impunity, use it in pro-
viding homes for criminals, arranged, if he so please, for concealing the
thieves and their plunder, and for baffling the pursuit of the police ; or
he may, with equal impunity, engage in the manufacture of burglars',
thieves', and counterfeiters' instruments, some of which are required to
be of elaborate construction and workmanship. It is true that as regards
those who cash the stolen property, either by purchase or by loan — re-
ceivers and pawnbrokers — the law does provide for their i)unishment ;.
but the requirements as to evidence are such as to make detection and
conviction, in ordinary cases, all but impossible. No doubt the criminal
capitalists, compared to the swarms of operative plunderers, constitute^
but a small class. But being more sensitive to the terrors of the law,,
and more confined to given localities, they offer by far the fairest mark
for criminal legislation. The mere operative of the criminal class has
neither reputation to hazard nor property to lose ; he can hide himself,
or run away. Not so, however, the man who has invested his capital in
aid of the predatory class. He cannot conceal himself; and if he ab-
scond, he must leave his house, his shop, or his stock behind him. These
crime-capitalists present a vital and an exceedingly vulnerable part of
286 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
the organization. If it were made absolutely unsafe for owners of prop-
erty to afford shelter to habitual criminals — the stern rule, " no house-
room to the dishonest," being rigidly enforced — and if it were also made
equally unsafe either to purchase stolen property or to advance money
upon it, the class that now lives by plunder would be driven to honesty
or starvation. Some years ago, in the town of Kidderminster, England,
it was noticed that while more bulky articles were perfectly secure from
depredation, the silk and thread used in bombazine and carpet weav-
ing were constantly stolen. Now, what was the cause of this strange
anomaly ? Not, surely, that the people were honest for one thing and
dishonest for another. But this was the reason : Kidderminster was
not large enough to harbor a trader in stolen goods of the ordinary
kind; but it contained many small weavers, some of whom had both
means and inclination to buy the stolen silk and thread. Circumstances
enabled capital and labor — the capital of the small weaver and the labor
of the thi^f — to act jointly against the silk and thread, while they
did not admit of such joint action against other kinds of property.
There is a world of instructioi^in this. It says to society, Strike at the
crime-capitalist in your warfare against crime ; maji;e the cities too hot
to hold him ; destroy opportuuitj' in the large towns as well as in the
small; and then evil inclination ^^ill remain dormant and undeveloped
in the former no less than in the latter. But so long as, through igno-
rance or fear, you fail to adopt this method of attack, you will be obliged
to maintain an army of policemen to check evil inclination as it ripens
into crime ; your property will be exposed to plunder and your persons
to injury ; and thousands upon thousands of children, who might have
been saved, will be doomed to grow up under iuiiuences which will com-
pel them, by a law as inexorable as that which makes the magnetic
needle obey the lodestone, to become the criminal army of the future.
Now, of what has been said, this is the sum : To the spoliation of
property, the united action of capital and labor is essential. Habitual
criminality is sustained by an alliance between these two elements, each
being alike indispensable to the prosecution of the business. The crime-
<;a])itali.sts are few ; the operative plunderers many. The law strikes at
the many operatives, one by one ; it might and should strike at the few
capitalists as a class. Let it direct its blows against the connection
l>et ween cai)ital and labor, ordinarily a beneficent one, but in this case
evil, and only evil; nor forbear its assaults till it has wliolly broken and
dissolved tlie connection. When this baleful union shall be pierced in a
vital part, it will perish. When the corner-stone of the leprous fabric
shall be removed, the building itself will tumble into ruins.
§ 8. A large number of i)ersons, in this country and in all countries,
are every year arreste«l on sus])icion and committed to prison, where
they are (tonfined for longer or shorter periods, varying from a day to a
\ e;ir, and (;ven more, who, nevertheless, either on their first hearing or
their trial, are acMjuitled by the magistrate or the coui't, and liberated
as not guilty of the crimes charged against them. Yet, I am not aware
that aiiy\vhei-e 1 lie-persons so arrested, so imprisoned, and so adjudged to
be innoecMit, receive any indemnity for the loss of time to which they have
bi-eii, if not nnjiistly, at least wilhont an.\ fault of theirs, subjected. On
this state of thiugs, the (|u<'slion arises, Is not i»ersonal liberty a right
as respectable as the right of property'/ And if this(|uestion is answered,
as it must be, in the allii-mativc^, a secoml instantly arises, viz, Is it not
the plain duty of society to indemnify the innocent citizen, whom it has
imprisoned, lor the. loss of time thus occasioniMl, as it indemnities the
citizen from wlioiti it has taken his house or his Ib'hl for some public use ?
INDEMNITY FOR WRONGFUL IMPRISONMENT. 287
The riglit of indemnity, in this latter case, is not only fully recognized,
but guarded with a jealous care. The state wants a part or the whole
of my laud for some great work, whose execution is demanded by the
public good. Yet it can take possession only after various and solemn
formalities. My right of ownership is guarded at every point and at
every step ; and I can be finally dispossessed only on receipt of full value
for that of which 1 am deprived. I am found under circumstances which
induce a suspicion, possibly a very slight one, that I have committed a
criminal act. The state causes my arrest, and shuts me up in prison.
It holds me there one month, six months, twelve months ; and then, by
the mouth of its chosen agents, solemnly declares that I am not guilty
of the crime of which it had, or thought it had, reason to suspect me,
and consequently lets me go free. That is all the state does. But is
that the state's whole duty ? Am I not as much entitled to indemnity in
this case as in the other? The stale thought I had done wrong, but
was mistakeu, and has made public and solemn declaration to that
effect. Ought she not to repair the loss of time caused by her error?
It is imi)0ssible for her to make good other and graver losses. "A man
is accused, (I cite the words of an eminent French publicist, Mr.
Mathieu ;) some appearances are against him ; and, though the pre-
sumption of innocence protects him, he is arrested; he is torn away
from his home, his familj^, his affairs; disorder and trouble are intro-
duced into all his relations; a deadly blow is given to his credit;
and he is exposed to a ruin which he might ward off if he were at
liberty, but which his imprisonment renders inevitable. Not only
has this man suffered all the j)aius which have just been described;
not only has he seen, without being able to apply a remedy, disor-
der and ruin invade his business, but it is in vain that an order of
the judge, or even a decision of the tribunal, annuls his imprisonment
and breaks his chains. The preliminary detention has marked him with
an indelible stigma; the suspicion, in virtue of which justice has laid
her hand upon him, follows him like his shadow, and his reputation will
not be cured of the deadly wound it has received. Yet it is not the
prisoner who is most to be pitied. How can we fail to turn our eyes
toward his wife, his children, his family, though innocent, yet smitten
with the same blow, ruined and disgraced like himself, without a fault
that can be laid to their charge? Is this justice? Can society so crush
tlie individual in the name of the general interest?"
Surely the principle of indemnity lies wrapped up, as the acorn holds
the oak, in this eloquent denunciation; rather, let me say, this irref-
ragable logic. Not, indeed, complete indemnity, for money is not equal
to that function, but indemnity for the time spent in prison. This prin-
ciple is applied every day in similar cases. The witness and the jury-
man, summoned from the work-bench or the counting-house to the court-
room, receive each a piece of money for the loss of time thus incurred.
To one of them, who makes, perchance, his hundreds a day, it is but
the symbol of justice, a token of the mutual relation between the citi-
zen and the state; to the other, it is the daily breaJ of himself and his
family. Can any reason be assigned wh}' the same principle should not,
nay, must not, be applied in the case of the man whom the judicial
authority itself, speaking from the seat of justice, has declared to have
been imprisoned and "held in durance vile" without adequate cause?
Two incidental advantages, of no inconsiderable moment, additional to
that of meeting a d<^mand of justice, might be expected from the intro-
duction of this principle into the administration of criminal law, viz,
greater caution in making arrests, and more speedy trials after arrest.
288 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
Well and eloquently, iu a paper on this subject prepared for the Ciucin-
nati couoress, has Mr. Corne said: "Man is not yet valued at his Just
price. The resources which he is capable of developing are far from
having attained their maximum of force. Henceforth, without danger
of being considered Utopian, we may demand for him a i)ortiou of that
respect with which mere property is surrounded. It is iu this view that
we claim that no prisoner, judicially recognized as innocent, shall be re-
stored to his liberty w^ithout indemnity for the injury he has suffered as
a consequence of his unjust imprisonment."
§ 9. The identification of prisoners who have been previously convicted,
is a matter of the highest importance in the administration of criminal
law; but, unfortunately, no well-devised plan for attaining this object
with certainty exists, so far as I know, in any of the States of our Union.
Hence the statistics of relapses and recommittals among us are vague
and unreliable in the extreme ; nothing could be in a more unsatisfactory
state. Much use is made of photography in England and Ireland, and
the same is true of several of the continental states. But the most
perfect scheme for securing trustworthy knowledge on this point is the
criminal registers {casiers judiciaires) devised by Mr. Bonneville de Mar-
sangy, a French jurist of great eminence, who has lived to see the re-
markable success of his invention in his own country, where it has been in
use for some fifteen years or more, and its adoption in many others — Italy,
Portugal, Denmark, &c. The first Napoleon, the greatest organizer of
modei'n times, desired that his minister of justice should have always
at hand "the biography of all malefactors;" a most natural wish, since
of all the elements of a judgment as to the moral curability or incorri-
gibility of an offender, the most reliable is a knowledge of his past, and
particularly as that past may have been connected with the administra-
tion of penal justice. This is precisely the knowledge which the crimi-
nal registers give concerning every man in France, who has ever felt
himself within the grasp of the law. The registers are an administra-
tive agency, with whose oiganizatioa and workings, on my first visit to
France, I was more desirous of becaming acquainted, from personal ex-
amination, than almost any other. Hence, learning that they were to
be seen in the court-house {jKdais de justice) at Saint Omer, the first
town I visited in France, that venerable structure received very early
attention after my arrival. I found the easier to be an immense case,
resembling a cui)board or closet, covering the whole side of a large
aj)artment in the building, called the registry. The case contained rows
of deep pigeon-holes, of which the number was^ equal to that of the let-
ters of the alithabet. These compartments Avere filled with boxes or
movable registeis {easier.s inobUes) arranged in alphabetical order, each
containing the individual bulletins, or certificates of conviction, pro-
nounced in any part of France against all i»ersons born in that district,
[arrondisHement.) As soon as a sentence is jtronounced by any tribunal
(even though it be military or naval) the clerk of the district in which
the piisoncr has been convicted is obliged, on pain of a fine, to imme-
diately a<l(hess, signed by the attorney lor the government, the certifi-
cate of his KcntcMice to the registry of the district of which he is a
native. JOacli certificate is on a single sheet, of a prescribed form and
size, to facilitate the handling, and on strong ])aper to i)revent its de-
struction. 1 examined, with li\ely inter<'st, a great number of these cer-
tificates, giving the criminal history, so far as it is found in the records
of courts, of j)ris()ners coiivi<;ted irom om; to twenty times — often in a
half dozen or dozen dillerent places. I'liey fully met the denuvnd of the
author of the Code Napoleon for a com]>leLe criminal biography of evejy
IDENTIFICATION OF PRISONERS. 289
man who had suffered the arrests of justice. Now there is just such a
registry in every arroudissement or jurisdiction of France. There is,
therefore, no longer any uiicertainty possible in regard to the antece-
dents of any person charged with crime. A telegram, addressed to
the register of his place of birth, immediately brings the statement that
there is no record in his case, or a recapitulation of all the convictions
previously had against him, no matter where, no matter when.
But suppose the accused to be of foreign birth, or to be ignorant of
his birth-place, or to conceal it. M. de Marsangy has not forgotten or
failed to provide for such contingencies. For these three classes he has
caused to be established in Paris a central depot of certilioates of con-
viction in the department of the minister of justice.
There are thus two centers of investigation. When the conviction of
a person, arraigned before any tribunal in France, is found neither in
the registry of his birthplace nor in that of the ministry of justice, M.
de Marsangy regards it as an almost certain proof that he has never
before been, in that country at least, under the hand of justice.
I will not stay to point out the many and great advantages which
must accrue to a country in which such a system has been established
and is efficiently administered. Whoever wishes to see them set forth
with equal force and eloquence is referred to a paper furnished by their
author to the penitentiary congress of Cincinnati, and published in its
volume of transactions.*
The system of criminal registers, by the very simplicity of the prin-
ciples which form its basis, is easily applicable to all countries. The
four following measures constitute all the conditions precedent which
are necessary to the establishment and successful working of the sys-
tem in any state : 1. That a register of births be kept in duplicate
copies, and that, every year, one of these duplicates be deposited in the
registry of the tribunal of the district. 2. That each clerk of the court
of the district have a case made, containing a cei'tain number of com-
partments for the reception of the boxes or movable registers, {casiers
mobiles,) arranged in alphabetical order, which are to serve as deposi-
tories of the individual certiticates under each letter. 3. That the cer-
tificate of every conviction, wherever had, be immediately addressed to
the tribunal of the convict's native district. 4. That every magistrate,
prosecuting an offender, be required to obtain from the clerk of the dis-
trict of which he is a native, and to attach to the proceedings in the
case, the certificate recapitulating all jirior convictions against him
which may have been collected and classified in his native district.
A careful study of the most effective means of identifying accused
prisoners previously convicted, and of the criminal registers, among
other agencies having this end in view, is worthy of the best minds in
our country, and especially of those who are called to make or execute
the laws.
§ 10. Eeference was made in the last section to the scantiness and
untrustworthiness of penitentiary statistics in this country relating to
relapses and recommittals. But the remark might receive a broader
application. Indeed, the whole science of statistics, and more particu-
larly as it relates to crime and criminal administration, is too little ap-
preciated, and therefore too much neglected in the United States. We
have no general, and especially no uniform, system of penitentiary
statistics for the whole country. But such a system is a great desider-
*A copy of said transactions can be had, without charge, by applying to Dr. Wines,
secretary National Prison Association, No. 320 Broadway, New York.
H. Ex. 185 19
290 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
atum ; it is, indeed, almost essential to broad and solid progress in this
department of social progress. The laws of social i^beuomena can be
ascertained only through the accumulation of facts. Keturns of such,
facts, carefully gathered from a wide Held of observation, and skill-
fully digested and tabulated, are indispensable to enable us to judge of
the effect of any law or system which may have been put in operation.
What we want to know is the facts ; but a knowledge of the facts re-
lating to so comi^lex a subject as that of crime and criminal adminis-
tration implies a mass of figures, collected from all quarters, and
arranged with refereu(;e to some well-defined end. The local and the
special are to little purpose here. It is the general only that has value;
that is to say, returns so numerous, so manifold, and drawn from so
wide a field and amid such diversified circumstances as to give real
significance to tlie results. It is such returns alone that will yield in-
ferences of practical value. We want to get an average ; but in order
to this, we must have scope and variety enough, both in the rauge and
character of the returns, to be enabled to eliminate from them whatever
is local and accidental, and to retain only what is general and perma-
nent. Only on this condition can our conclusion as to what constitutes
the essence of the matter be sound and safe. Only on this condition
shall we be able to feel that our inferences rest, not upon mere inci-
dents of the phenomena, which maybe partial, casual, and immaterial;
but upon the phenomena themselves, apart frooi variations which are
only temporary or adventitious.
We wish to know, for example, whether the stern severity of the
old system of prison discipline, or the benign pressure of the new, is the
more successful in diminishing crime. How are we to decide this ques-
tion 1 Obviously, our decision will have little force, unless our facts
shall have been collected from a wide territory, and under a great diver-
sity of conditions ; so that every phase of the phenomena shall have
been included in our returns, and all that is special and exceptional
shall have been corrected, jind a result reached, not neutralized or
"S'itiated by any circumstances which have not been noted and due
allowance 'made for them in the analysis. But the materials for a gen-
eralization having the breadth and trustworthiness here supposed are
criminal and penitentiary statistics. A reformatory prison in one place
may signally succeed, and in another as signally fail; yet the success
of the one and the failure of the other may have little value as an argu-
ment, since they may have been due to accidental causes — the comi)e-
tency or incompetency of the head, for example — and they will, there-
fore, afford no ground for any general conclusion. But if the experi-
ment of the new und milder discl[)linc has been tried in a score of differ-
ent ])laces, and under conditions widely variant, and yet has always
succeeded in securing a larger proportion of reformations than the old
and more rigid system, except in a very few cases where the iuilure can
be dearly traced to adventitious causes, such an induction will afford
^ a solid basis for our infereiuH's, and we shall feel that we stand u{)on a
* rock in allirming the j)roposition that kiiulness is more eflicacious than
severity in r( Ibniiing j)risoners and leading them back to the paths
of virtue.
In proportion, thcrclore, as our fa(;(s are gatliered from narrow dis-
tricts an<l conriMcd to short pciiods of time, our generalizations will be
unsaf«' as a basis ot argument, for we can iu',ver be sure tliat the mere
accidents of tlie expeiinu-nt may not- have determined the eharacter
of the result. A ]>ractiee founded on eonelusions arriv(^d at in this
way, though scienlilic, in form, would be enqiiiii-al in fact; dogmatism
PENITENTIARY STATISTICS. 291
would have been mistaken for induction. Nor can this false reasoning
be corrected otherwise than by returns which, it not universal, are at
least general ; that is, broadly comprehensive both of space and time.
As we know crime to be occasionally local and epidemic, so, under cer-
tain conditions, may reformations be ; for what else are those mighty
revivals of religion which have marked the history of the church in all
ages "? Results may be secured in one place and by one agency, w^hich
we may in vain seek to parallel in another jilace and by a different
agency. If we would know what a curative agency applied to crimin-
als can accomplish on the whole, we must know what it is effecting in
the manufacturing towns and the rural villages, what in the sea-ports
and the mountains and valleys of the interior, and what in the coal beds
and the gold mines. We must learn its results, not in selected spots
and under particular circumstances, but over broad regions and amid
conditions endlessly varied. The essential, inwrought power of a system
of prison discipline then comes out and makes itself manifest, when it
is seen in conflict with the special obstacles it has to encounter in the
agricultural, commerdal, manufacturing, and mining populations of a
country. The result of its struggle with all opposing forces is the re-
sult which alone is of any worth to us. And this can be known only as
the facts are gathered from all these fields, and are collated, digested,
and reduced to tabulated forms upon some uniform system, or at least
in a way that will admit of i^ractical comparison.
We want such statistics, uniform, full, and collected with regularity,
year by year, from all the prisons and reformatories of the country.
What do the American people know about American prisons ? Some-
thing they know of the prisons of Charlestown, Sing Sing, and Phila-
delphia ; but what information have they of the condition and progress
of prison discipline in Oregon, Texas, and Arkansas? How many know
the principle on which labor is organized, and the manner in which it is
conducted in the penitentiaries of Nevada, Kansas, Alabama, and Geor-
gia f Yet prison discipline is a mighty interest, touching profoundly the
nation's well-being, and, as it succeeds or fails, involving its material
interests to the extent of millions, aye, scores of millions every year. Is
not prison discipline, then, a subject in which the people everywhere
ought to be interested, and on which they need information, full, sys-
tematic, and regular ? It is not in reference to a prison here, a reform-
atory there, and a truant home somewhere else, that they require to be
informed ; but they should have such information touching all the penal,
reformatory, and preventive institutions of all the States ; and then they
would be able to judge whether the work of reforming criminals is really
accomplished among us, or whether our penitentiary system is, so far
forth, a mistake and a delusion. In the former case all we would need
to do would be to " go on unto perfection ;" in the latter it would be
necessary to retrace our steps and take a " new departure."
It is not, however, simply in a national view that penitentiary statis-
tics are valuable ; they have an international importance as well. The
Congress of London expressed very clearly its sense of this importance
by the appointment of a permanent international commission, charged,
among other functions, with the duty of devising, and, if possible, car-
rying into effect a scheme for a comprehensive system of international
criminal and penitentiary statistics, based on common principles, em-
ploying common formulas, and arranged in such manner as to be a true
measure and index of the crime, the penal administration, and the prison
discipline of all civilized countries. The National Prison Association is
the only organization in this country having a field of operations broad
292 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
euougli, and at the same time tbe requisite macliinery, to co-operate iu
so vast a work. The association is disposed to give special attention to
an enterprise recommended by so respectable a body, and promising re-
sults of such signal utility, not to our own country alone, but to the
whole human race. It is obvious, however, that the prosecution of such
a work, where the very agencies through which it is to be eiiected will
have to be created, will involve no inconsiderable esiienditure of money,
as well as an immense amount of labor. The labor it is willing to as-
sume 5 the money must be supplied from without. Impressed with the
importance, iu a national point of view, of the end proposed, the asso-
ciation sought from Congress, at its last session, a grant of $10,000 to
enable it to pursue that end with the vigor requisite to its accomplishment.
The Senate inserted in the annual deficiency bill the appropriation asked,
but it was thrown outiu the conference committee, and so failed. The
application will be renewed at the next session, when better success may
be anticipated. It was well understood by the London Congress, and
the opinion freely expressed, that so great a design could be accom-
plished only through the generous co-operation of the governments of
the whole civilized world, which, it was believed, would be readily ac-
corded, iu view of the beneticence as well as the vastuess of the results
to be expected. Mr. Beltrani-Scalia, of Italy, secretary of the commis-
sion, has prepared a complete series of formulas for recording the
statistics sought ; and the governments of various European countries
have already given their adhesion to the plan, and promised co-opera-
tion. It is not to be supposed that the government of the United States
will decline co-operation when it learns that other governments are
lending their aid, and especially when it comes to understand the real
nature and importance of the work, and an organization competent to
its performance stands ready and is even anxious to undertake it.
§ 11. A system of prison discipline, to be really reformatory, must
Mork icith nature rather than against it. If we would improve men,
whether in prison or o\it of it, we must not ignore, much less crush,
those great i)rincij)les which the Creator has, for wise purposes, impressed
upon the human constitution. The principle of sociability, for instance,
is one of the strongest instincts of the soul ; one of the mightiest forces
of human progress. Can we safely thrust it aside in our eftbrt to re-
claim and reform fallen men 'I Captain Maconochie's great experiment
ill ])rison discipline on Norfolk Island, with its great harvest of reforma-
tions of even the most hardened criminals, is well known. But he
iiimself declares that liis task was not really so dillicult as it was thought,
nor its results so wonderful as they appeared, for the reason that he
was working with nature, not against her, as most other prison systems
(lid. He sought to cherish, and at the same time to direct and regulate,
those ciavings for improved position which all men possess in some de-
gree, an<l which are otten strongest in those otherwise most debased.
Under the guidance of right i)rincii>le, he (bund that his men, most of
whom were steei)ed in crime, rose easily to order and exertion. But
MiJH r(!sult WiiH iKjfc accomplished by a system of })ami)ering and weak
iiidulgt'Mce. On the contrary, lu^ held a steady hand, and his discipline
wiis firm and energetic, though always just. Jle <lid not lail to inflict
punishment when dcseived ; i)ut he applied it within the limits assigned
i>()tli by the letter iiiid the spirit of the law, not byex(;esses of authority
beyond it. The law imposed imprisonment atul hard labor, and these
h(^ caused his men, in tlie I idlest sense, to emlure. 10v(^ry one was re-
(piiied to perform, to the last stioke, his allotted task ; but he was saved
ai! needless h iiiniliat ion, ami was encouraged to look to his own steady
PRISON DISCIPLINE MUST AVOEK WITH NATURE. 293
efforts for the amelioratiou of his lot and for ultimate liberation. And
this, he modestly declares — not the efforts of an individual, however
zealous — was the real secret of his success.
This principle of working with rather than against nature, in prison
inanageraent, is in direct contradiction to existing systems of peniten-
tiary discipline, and to the practice of most, happily not all, individual
X)risons. Coercion is, in most systems and prisons, the supreme force.
The separate system is the most i)erfect form of coercion ever devised ;
men are utterly helpless in its grasp. But the silent system does not
much differ from this. The silent, like the separate, system rests, in its
last analysis, on the principle of isolation. The only difference is, that
in tbe one case the isolation is accomplished by an absolute bodily sep-
aration ; in the other, it is of a moral kind, being effected by the en-
forcement of an absolute and eternal silence. The principle of sociability
has no more play under the one system than under the other. At least
so far as theory goes it has not ; for if the theoretical silent system
were or could be practically enforced, which is impossible, men would
work side by side for years, yes, for a life-time, without exchanging a
thought by word, look, gesture, or any token whatever. Now all 'this
constitutes a species of domestic slavery; and it sets such systems
aside as ordinary agents of general reform. I do not deny that individ-
ual reformations take place under them ; but this is not so much through
the system as in spite of it. Coercion is not a soil in which the tender
plant of moral reform ever grew ; or, at least, in which it can be ordiuarily
expected to grow. Such rough-riding over human nature is irrecon-
cilable with every principle legitimately founded on its study.
Prisons should be made great worksliops, or industrial establishments,
where the inmates are systematically trained to be skillful, steady, sober,
and voluntarily industrious; and where all the arrangements for labor
are, at the same time, so like real life, as to be a natural preparation for
it. The voluntary character of the labor cannot be too strongly insisted
on. Compulsory labor — labor into which the will of the workman does
not enter cordiall.y — is, as a rule, rude, heedless, unskillful, and therefore
unprofitable. It is free, and, still more, emulative or competitive labor
that is earnest, ingenious, skillful, and productive. The economical im-
provement under such a system would be felt almost as soon as the
moral ; nor, indeed, can these ever be disjoined. No doubt it would re-
quire care and discretion, in the first instance, to organize such estab-
lishments. But the skill employed in their organization must be like
that highest art which conceals art; and it must, above all, be content
to sow good seed, and then wait, Avithout forcing, the expected return.
It would be easy to produce immediate results; but these would be
ephemeral. Possibly the wisdom which is willing to wait can be gained
only in the school of experience; but the test of renewed convictions
after discharge would at length teach it eft'ectually. When the lesson not
to go too fast, to give a large scope to free agency, to let temptation as-
sume all its customary forms, to regulate little but encourage much, is
sufiiciently learned, complete success may be hoped for in what should
ever be the great aim of public punishment, the reformation of the fallen.
Much has been said of the demoralization and corruption resulting from
the association of prisoners, especially with liberty of intercommunica-
tion. No doubt if, as on the usual principle of prison management, only
their worst feelings are called out, and their intercourse is without
guidance or control, the association of prisoners will be corrupting. But
if their better impulses are brought into play — and Maconochie, Mon-
tesiuos, Obermaier, Crofton, Sollohub, and Guillaume have shown that,
294 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
by proper combinations, this may be done without sacrificing any measnre
of just and reasonable i^unishment — prisoners will be found very much
like other men.
It is argued that, however the association of i)risoners with free
persons might be advantngeous to the former, that of i^risoners
with prisoners cannot but prove hurtful to them. But this is a
gratuitous, and, in my opinion, wholly erroneous assumption. Every
one knows that it is easier to intluence men in a body than individually,,
and that, when once in motion, they will go further, since they mutually
help one another by the common enthusiasm created by the union.
Moreover, strange as the proposition sounds, there is a natural tendency
in numbers toward right feeling. Witness the clap-traps of a theater,
which are generally high moral sentiments. Witness the further fact,
that the better feelings of a mob are rarely appealed to in vain. On the
field of battle, the most heroic devotion, even to the sacrifice of life, is
often called out at a word. In none of these instances, probably, could
the same generous response be obtained from a single individual, which
he renders, not only spontaneously, but enthusiastically, as one of a
body. Captain Maconochie says that, on Norfolk Island, he could have
done nothing with the prisoners separately ; that the best of them
would have remained only dogged under his exhortations ; and that, in
Birmingham, he would neither have gained the boys as he did, nor
would they have beeu able to influence each other outside as they did,
if they had been shut up in separate cells. The experience of Monte-
sinos at Valencia, of Obemiaier at Munich, of Crofton at Lusk, of Sollo-
hub at jNIoscow, and of Guillaume at l^eufchiitel, was, as we have seen,
all of the same nature.
There is a reason of much cogency why greater prominence should be
given to the social principle in our systems of prison discipline. Crime
is essentially and intensely self-regarding, self-seeking, anti-social.
Hence it is fostered by the selfish, and checked by the social, element of
our nature. This fact is noted by Herbert Spencer in his Essay on
Prison Ethics. He remarks : " The natural prompter of right conduct
to others, and the natural opponent of misconduct to others, is sympa-
thy; for out of sympathy grow both the kindly emotions, and that sen-
timent of justice which restrains us from aggression. Well, this sympa-
thy, which makes society possible, is cultivated by social intercourse.
By habitual participation in the pleasures of others, the faculty is
strengthened ; and whatever prevents this participation weakens it — an
effect commoidy illustrated in the selfishness of old bachelors. Hence
we contend that shutting up prisoners Mithin themselves, or forbidding
all interchange of feeling, inevitably deadens such sympathies as they
have, and so tends ratlier to diminish than to increase the moral check
to transgression. Thus there is good reason to think that while silence
and solitude may cow the s[)irit or undermine the energies, they cannot
produce true reforuialion."
The i)riii(;iple is, that life within prison must be made as close a copy
of Iif(5 outsi<le as may be, without sacrificing any of the just ends of
I)iiblic puiiisliMicnt. One of the nu)st iini)ortant i)arts of the machinery
by whi(^ii Ciiptiiin jMaconochie luoposcd to attain this ()bje(;t, was his
iiuirk system, which has been already partially exjdained. Jt will be
rccolUjcted that his ])Iiin was to have; hibor sentences instead of time
H(!nteiic('S — speci(i(; tasUs to be measured by niarks, and to be worked
out by tlu', ])rison(us. Ko supplies of any kind, whether of food, bedding,
clothing — not cv(!U ediu-ation — were to be given gratuitou.sli/ ; all were
to be mad(^ excliaugcahlc, at fixed r;ites, us the prisoner needed and was
REFORMATORY DISCIPLINE MUST EMBRACE TWO STAGES, 295
willing to buy them, for marks previously earned ; with the distinct un-
derstanding, however, that only those which remained over and above
all so exchanged, should count toward liberation. The prisoners, like
free citizens, were thus made to depend, for every necessary and com-
fort, on their own industry and personal deserts ; while their prison
offenses were restrained by fines to be paid in marks, just as those of
persons outside are by fines in money or privation of liberty. Describ-
ing the practical working of his method. Captain Maconochie says :
"First, it gave me wages, and then fines. One gave me willing and
progressively skilled laborers ; the other saved me from the necessity of
imposing brutal and demoralizing punishments. My form of money
next gave me school fees. I was most anxious to encourage education
among my men, but, as I had refused them rations gratuitously, so I
would not give them schooling either, but compelled them to yield
marks to acquire it. I never saw any other adult schools make such
rapid progress. My form of money next gave me bail bonds in cases of
minor or even of great offenses; a period of close imprisonment being
often wholly or in part remitted in consideration of a sufficient number
of other prisoners of good conduct becoming bound, under penalty of
the forfeiture of a certain number of good marks, for the improved con-
duct of the culprit."
Even in the establishment of a sick-club and a burial-club. Captain
Maconochie applied the inflexible principle of "nothing for nothing" —
that is to say, here, as throughout, he made the discipline of the prison
as much like the discipline of Providence in free life as possible. He
sought to make all his arrangements such that the prisoners would ex-
perience, through them, just such and so much of good or evil as natur-
ally flowed from their coiiduct — a principle which he rightly declares to
be'the only true one. Now, what were the effects of a system made to
conform, in so remarkable a degree, to the providential arrangements
found in ordinary society ? The extreme debasement of the Norfolk
Island convicts was notorious. They were the scum of all the penal
colonies, sent to Norfolk because of their exceptional depravity. Yet
reformations of these men were effected to an extent and of a character
unknown, either before or since, in any of the penal colonies of the
British Empire. This we must believe, unless all human testimony is to
be discredited. How strong the attestation thus lent to the truth and
force of the principle under consideration.
§ 12. In order to the best effect of a reformatory prison discipline, it
should be divided into two distinct stages — the stage of punishment
and the stage of reformation and training ; the former having in view
the prisoner's past, the latter his future. Both these processes, when the
object is reform, are equally benevolent, because both are equally
essential to the end in view. There can as little be true reform with-
out true penitence, as there can be the growth of the man without the
birth of the child. But the necessity for each is not, of itself, equally
clear to criminals. IMany who would, if possible, escape from restric-
tions as mere punishment, would willingly submit to them when under-
stood to be a necessary antecedent of reform, and especially of release
as conditioned upon reform ; for nothing is counted a hardship which
fends to that issue. As a fever must be reduced before its ravages can
be repaired, and as a wound must be probed and cleansed before it can
be properly healed, so, in the moral cure of a criminal, a punishing
stage must precede the reformatory stage. To do one thing at a time,
and each well, is the rule in all nice operations ; and, surely, the recov-
ery of a fellow-being from habits of crime to virtue, is worthy of an
296 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
equally methodical and careful procedure, and is not likely to be accom-
plished by one less scientific and delicate. "
The necessity for separating these two processes may be placed in
another light, and shown by a different argument. Subjection to pun-
ishment is ?ai unnatural state, and interferes, necessarily, with that free
agency, a sense of which is instinctive in man ; whereas, on the con-
trary, a state of trial, of difiQculty, of hardship even, supported by hope,
and with its objects to be attained -by voluntary exertion and self-
denial, is a highly natural and improving state ; it is the very state in
which we are all sent into the world, and to which, accordingly, our
faculties are especially accommodated. The two processes, therefore,
cannot be combined, for either the restrictions involved in direct iiun-
ishment destroy the free agency which is the essence of trial, or the
concessions made to free agency weaken, if they do not destroy, the re-
strictions essential to punishment.
A testing stage should follow these two ; but of that enough has been
said in a former section.
§ 13. It belongs to the essenceof a reformatory prison discipline to impart
to theprisoner, during his detention, the power as well as the will to earn
an honest living after his release. This can be done only by giving him,
while he remains in prison, both the love and the habit of industry. Labor
is at once a means of support and an auxiliary to virtue. It was a favorite
maxim with Howard, " Make men diligent, and they will be honest."
Work is the only sure basis of a reformatory discipline. " Unless
prisoners acquire habits of industry and a liking for some kind of labor,"
says Mr. Frederic Hill in his admirable Treatise on Crime, " little hope
can be entertained of their conduct after liberation." Good resolutions
ure well as far as they go ; but, as a dependence for the future, unsup-
ported by the habit of honest, useful toil, they will prove wholly falla-
cious. It will turn out with them as with sick-bed resolves, which
usually vanish with returning health. Therefore, it is a matter of prime
importance to impart to prisoners the knowledge of some regular busi-
ness. The ranks of criminals are chieliy recruited from persons without
fixed occnpation, and especially from those who have never learned a
trade. At least eighty i)er cent, of our imprisoned criminals belong to
this class, which shows to what an extent the want of a trade becomes
an-occasion of crime. To teach a convict a trade is to place him above
want, and that is more than half-way toward making him an honest
man. A convict learning a trade is mastering the art of self-help. He
feels that he is doing something for himself. As a consequence he is
filled with hope; he is in better temper; his spirits are cheerful and
buoyant. This feeling is itself a reformative agency, and the man in
wliom it is found is much more likely to be morally imi)rovod by his in-
carceration than another in M'honi hoi)e, alacrity, and cheerfulness have
IxMiii extinguished. In one of his reports Mr. Kice states that of two
liundrcd convicts dischargcMl from the state prison of Maine, only seven
liad been reconvicted, and but two of th(!se had learned a trade. Would
it not be well, would it not beecononiical, to nuikc less use of machinery
in our ju-isons, iiiid more use? of the hands found there °i?
§ 14. iJoth icligion and education are fonuisof vast potency within as
well as without i»ris()M-walls. JJut tlu'ir i»ower and value are so well
known, and have been so otteii and forcibly exhil)it«'d, tiuit a )nere ref-
erence is all that seems n<'cessary in this report. Jleligion is the only
I)ower that is al)le to r<'sist the ii'i'itat ion that saps the moral forces of
these men of powerful impulses, whose neglect of its teachings has been
the occasion of their being immured within prison-walls; while the
MORAL FORCES TO BE MADE PROMINENT. 297
efifect of education is to quickeu intellect, give new ideas, supply-
food for thought, inspire self-respect, excite an honorable ambition, open
new fields of exertion, and afford a healthful substitute for low and
vicious amusements. What more need be said to show the value of
these agencies in reforming criminals?
§ 15. All who would engage, with any hope of success, in the work of
regenerating vicious and criminal humanity, must be animated by a
hearty desire and intention to accomplish that result. Such a feeling
and purpose, really entertained by all prison officials, would revolution-
ize prison management. It would change the whole spirit and tone of
administration ; and when that is done, the fit processes of a reformatory
discipline will follow as a matter of course. It is not so much any spe-
cific apparatus that is needed, as it is the introduction of a really benev-
olent spirit into our prison work. It is the exercise of the Christian
virtues as related to man that is wanted ; and this, when exhibited under
the control of principle and conscience, not of mere sentiment and im-
pulse, is also the best manifestation of those virtues in their relation to
God. Once let prison officers understand that their business is to re-
form— not merely to imnish — their fellow-men, and let their desire and in-
tention be conformed to that understanding, and they will speedily be-
come inventive of the methods conducive to that end. Let the principle
be established in theory and rooted in the heart of those who are to
apply it, and suitable processes will follow, as naturally as the harvest
follows the sowing.
§16. Equally essential is a serious conviction on the part of prison
officers that prisoners are capable of being reformed. This belief is
indispensable to success, for no man can heartily maintain a discipline
at war with his inward beliefs. No man can earnestly strive to ac-
complish what in his heart he despairs of accomplishing. Doubt is an
element of failure ; xiontidence a guarantee of success. Nothing so weak-
ens moral forces as unbelief; nothing so strengthens them as faith.
" Be it unto thee according to thy faith," is not a mere theological dic-
tum ; it is equally the statement of a fundamental principle of success
in all human undertakings, especially when our work lies within the
realm of mind and morals.
§ 17. Greater prominence than heretofore should be given to moral
forces, and less to mere physical power. A broad distinction must be
made between physical apparatus and moral appliances in prison treat-
ment. By physical apparatus is to be understood whatever is intended
merely to coerce ; by moral appliances, whatever offers a choice, and
thus strengthens while it guides. The essential distinction is that be-
tween force and persuasion, between fettering the body and gaining the
soul. The chief reliance, both for preventing crime and weaning from
it, has been, and is, fear. Fear is no doubt among the most active
passions and impulses of the soul. We all feel it, more or less, daily ;
and it ought, undoubtedly, to have a place in every system of crime-
repression. Nevertheless, there is not an impulse of any kind — love,
hatred, desire, hope, avarice — that does not continually overcome it,
even in the most timid. Is it rational, then, in the effort to repress
crime, to rest our chief confidence on the weaker rather than the stronger
agencies, especially when it is considered that the promptings to ci-ime
usually proceed from the most powerful impulses of the human breast?
There needs to be introduced into prison discipline a higher aim, a treat-
ment of prisoners that seeks to gain the will, and not merely to coerce
the body. What is wanted is, that they be trained to become virtuous
freemen, and not merely that they be reduced, for a time, to the posi-
298 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
tion of well-ordered bondmen, taught the Tirtues of a state of slavery —
obedience, submission, punctuality, order, and the like — but, of neces-
sity, accompanied by a large admixture also of the vices of slavery —
deceit, duplicity, evasion, latent but cherished resentment, and a thicker
cloak of hypocrisy, which, however, only conceals, with more or less art,
the continued rottenness within.
Criminals are too commonly considered the representatives of crime ;
and harshness tosvard them is thought to be a legitimate manifestation
of our detestation of it. Should they not rather be looked upon as its
first and saddest victims, to be pitied as well as blamed ; to be pitied
all the more for being bankrupt in virtue and character as well as in
means ? If we would earnestly seek to raise them from this state, not
by weak and unwise indulgence, but by a judicious course of firm and
even severe training, which would develop their manly and stimulate
their moral nature, we should show a better understanding of the sub-
ject and of our duty in relation to it, and be much more successful in
the great end of repressing crime. Only let us try ; try in good faith
and with good will ; not halting between two opinions, but steadily and
energetically acting upon one. The result would not long remain doubt-
ful ; and the greatest and gravest moral jiroblem of our day would be
at length satisfactorily solved.
All past systems of prison discipline have been, in the main, but
modifications of force. Authority has been their chief, too often their
exclusive, reliance. The result, so far as reforming criminals is con-
cerned, has been failure. Let organized persuasion now have a trial ;
not coaxing, not pampering, not indulgence — a system as pernicious as
it is false and feeble — but persuasion, with such forces behind it, result-
ing from a judicious application of motives, as, while leaving the will
free, will yet, by a sort of moral necessity, determine it to a right
choice.
The coercive system would seem to be an inherently and essentially
vicious one, insomuch that precisely where it is most perfect, it will be
found ultiuiately least successful. Mind can be gained only by appeal-
ing to mind. Fettering the body is even directly opposed to this. It
has its immediate and apparent advantages; but they are too dearlj^
purchased. If we will actively employ our prisoners, and by suitable
means cultivate in them the daily practice of the manly and social virtues,
they will protect themselves from degrading vices much better than we
can protect them by walls and bolts; and the moral triumph thus
achieved will be as improving and streugthening to them as the
triumph won by ])hysical force is humiliating and enfeebling.
Let me brielly indicate two or three of those moral forces whose use
would be likely to be atteiuled with the best results.
Tiie ability of the prisoner to better his condition while in prison
throu^ih his own exertions — in other words, a regulated self-interest — is
one of {\\i\ mightiest as well as the In-althiest of these forces. Montesi-
Tios found this so in his jtrison at Valencia. He convinced himself that
men in jnison, as well as men outside, need the slimnlus of some per-
sonal advantage tolx' <]criv(Ml IVom tlicir exertions. He says that what
no severity ol" punishment or constancy in applying it could ibrce out
of his' m(!n, a veiy nuxlerate personal interest readily obtained. In
different ways, tliercfon^ he constantly aj)[>lied this ]>owerrul stinuilant,
and the excc^llent results it yielded and the iVuitlul gernis of reform
developed by it convinced him at length that the most ineflicacious of
all methods in a prison and the most fatal to every chance of reform
are punishments carried to the length of harshness. Jt was not, he
MORAL FORCES TO BE MADE PROMINENT. 299
says, till after mauy trials of severity that he ultimately made the prin-
ciple of encouragement and persuasion the basis of all his operations
on the minds of the prisoners. He caused forty-three distinct trades to
be taught in as mauy dift'ereut workshops, and stimulated industry and"
skill by allowing the prisoners a large share in the product of their
toil. The administration of Colonel Montesinos lasted fifteen years,
and the results were : 1, ready submission, few punishments, and a high
state of discipline: 2, the ability to dispense almost entirely with a paid
staflt' by the substitution of the most intelligent of the reformed crimi-
nals as under-oflficers ; 3, the complete self-support of the establishment,
so that never a dollar was called for from the state; 4, the reduction of
relapses from 40 per cent. — the average prior to his incumbency — to
zero, not a single recommittal having taken place during the last three
years of his administration, and an average of only one per cent, during
the ten years preceding.
The cultivation of a feeling of self-respect in i^risoners develops a
moral force, of great potency in prison administration. Self-respect is one
of the most powerful sentiments of the human mind, for the reason that
it is the most intensely personal. Hence the maxim, "Do not further
degrade in prison the man who has come to it already degraded by his
crimes," should be constantly and carefully applied in prison treatment.
No one will ever beneficially influence prisoners who does not seek to
strengthen in their breasts the sentiment of manhood and personal dig-
nity.
Moral power over prisoners may be attained through frquent,
frank, kindly conversations with them — not too familiar, but judicious
and self-respecting. This was an agency constantly employed by
Maconochie, and he ascribes to- it much of the influence that he
gained over his men. He encouraged all to address him with freedom,
and he would not even listen to a man unless he stood erect, looked him
in the face, and spoke to him like a man. He used to say to them that
he would rather have a man insolent than cringing. He encouraged all
to speak freely to him, and to express, without reserve, their views and
sentiments on whatever was the subject of conversation. By this means
he was enabled to sound their impressions and the sources of them
much more deeply than would otherwise have been possible. He made
it a special object when thus conversing with a prisoner to interrogate
him about his early youth and training, his parents, the lessons they
had taught him, the example they had set him, &c. His design in
this was to call up the associations of earlier days, and thus endeavor to
revive in him the good impulses and principles which had guided his con-
duct before he became corrupted and seared by the scenes through which
he had subsequently passed. In this way he obtained an immense
power over his jirisouers, which he skillfully and eftectively applied as
an agent in their reformation.
" The law of love and love in law" — in other words, kindness duly regu-
lated— is a moral force of almost illimitable power. The kindness proposed
is not, however, that which seeks merely to alleviate the immediate suffer-
ing of prisoners, which they have deserved and ought to undergo. It is
rather a rational, prudent, forecasting kindness, which seeks to lift them
up, to strengthen them, and to prepare them for the battle of life.' Such
a spirit universally introduced into our prisons would work wonders,
both on the character of the prisoners and the movement of crime.
This spirit once there, this aspiration after the moral improvement of
their charge felt by the officers and recognized by them as a duty, would
prove both inventive and creative in their hands. It would find or malce
300 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
means to accomplish the reform of their prisoners, and when one agency-
proved abortive it would have recourse to others; it would not he wlwlly
bauJlied. Further, as we see in tlie case of M. Demetz and Mettray,
such a spirit having once found a lodgoient in the breast of prison offi-
cers, and constantly working itself out into action, would not long be
confined within the prison walls, but would follow into society, after
their discharge, those who had felt its beneficent power during their
captivity, and would thus tend prodigiously to prevent relapses and, as
a consequence, to diminish the volume of crime. What a change would
the general possession and manifestation of this spirit produce in the
tone and temper with which prisoners are treated! This is now too
often supercilious, if not even contemptuous, whereas it should be rather
that in which patients are received and treated in a hospital. Certainly
the hatefulness of the crime committed should be freely expressed. On
this head there should be no compromise. But apart from this, the
criminal should be sincerely regarded and studiously treated as an object
of compassion, fallen but recoverable, and sent to prison expressly to
that end. A tone of hopefulness for his case should thus be maintained,
and confidence felt and shown that, when put in the right way, he will
be manly enough to abide in it. This idea of manliness and courage as
belonging to virtue, and of abjectnessand cowardice as inhering in vice,
should be especially insisted on. The greatest benefit has resulted from
it in dealing with rough and fallen natures. It is an idea that comes
home to many men otherwise hard to be impressed, and to whom, on
the other hand, any approach to whining or cant is distasteful, and
becomes an object of scorn and scoffing.
It is important to note, in passing, that a liberal application of the
law of kindness to prisoners is not incompatible with a calm, steady,
resolute discipline. Tenderness may be fitly and successfully blended
with justice in dealing with them. It is not a just rigor against which
the prisoner rebels, for that may be as kind as it is wise ; it is rather
against capricious harshness, which is cruel and irritating for the very
reason that it lacks the element of justice. Criminals are not much
accustomed to kind treatment, and therefore they are the more touched
by it. Convince them that you have a genuine sympathy, show them a
kindness which evidently has its seat in the heart, and their sensibility
is instantly awakened. This principle keeps a lingering hold upon our
nature even in the last and lowest degree of human wickedness. When
all other generous sensibilities are gone, this survives and shows itself
even in the most hardened criminals. There is, somehow and some-
where, a soft part about them, which will give way before the demon-
strations of a genuine tenderness and love. This one germ of a dormant
virtue, this solitary element of an improved character, is found to out-
live the destruction of all others; insomuch that, fallen as a brother
may be from the moralities which oncte adorned him, the manifested
good-will (»r his fellow-man still carries a charm and an inlluence along
with it. ^J'hcre li(!s a regenerative and redem])tive i)ower just here,
which no degradation can crush, no «lepravity extinguish.
§ 18. Jiidividuali/ation is an (essential principle of a reformatory
prison disciple. 'JMiere was a general agreement in {he congress ou
this point. Jt was held unanimously that, to insane the highest imi)rove-
ment of ])rison(Ms, ])ris()n(;rs must, to a (UM'tain extent, like the difi'ereut
members of a household, Ixi tn^ated individually. While all alike are
placed under a general hiw, the condu(;t of each, as directed by it,
should be specially ami minutely noted. The improving effect of this
would he found very great. It would b(^ a first step toward restoring to
INDIVIDUALIZATION SPECIAL EDUCATION OF OFFICERS. 301
each that feeling of self-respect without which no recovery will ever be
found permanent. Each should be enabled to know, if i)0ssible, from
day to day, and certainly from week to week, the light iu which his con-
duct is viewed, in all important particulars, by those placed over him;
for thus alone, as his good purpose strengthens, will he be enabled to
correct that wherein he may be found deficient. To this end a card
might be hung iu his cell, with four rows of figures constantly kept
upon it. The first should indicate the prisoner's general conduct ; the
secoud his degree of industry and exertion ; the third his attention and
improvement, as noted by the chaplain; and the fourth the same, as
shown by the schoolmaster's record. By this means, whenever the
warden or chaplain, or any person entitled to make such perquisition, goes
round, the whole conduct— and thence the character — of the individual
would be instantly patent, and commendation, censure, caution, advice,
or exhortation could be addressed to him as each might be needed.
These marks would also form the basis of those estimations of character
according to which prisoners would be passed through the different
stages of treatment, rising successively from grade to grade, until, be-
ginning at the lowest, they should have at length reached the highest.
It will be found important that rewards for exertion and improve-
ment, other than physical comforts, be progressively added ; or even
that they should, at the discretion of the authorities, be substituted for
such comforts. It is right and fair, and even improving, that consider-
ation lor the last should be used as a stimulus in the lower stages of
reformatory treatment. Such, indeed, is the arrangmeut of Providence
iu human eociety, and we cannot copy a better type. But in proportion
as the higher nature of the prisoner is developed and cultivated, higher
objects of desire should be suggested and made similarly attainable, in
order at once to keep the upward tendency active, and" to raise the char-
acter of its aspirations. For this purpose a longer allowance of gas-
light, a wider scope of books and instruction, and increased facilities
of communication with families and respectable friends outside, and
other like indulgences will be found powerful and most improving en-
couragements. At no stage, however, should any remission be made of
the call for contiuufyil active exertion. To reward a prisoner, in any
part of his course, by permitted idleness, is to uudo the improvement
that may have been already effected in him by dissociating the ideas of
sustained eiibrt and success, which should, as much as possible, be kept
inseparably "together in his mind. Even when partially sick, employ-
ment of some "kind should, wherever practicable, be thus given him.
The surgeon should be constantly invited to suggest such. Not infre-
quently this will even promote recovery — if not otherwise, yet by making
a state of sickness not entirely a state of exemption.
§ 19. It is almost superfluous to remark that such a i>rison system
and prison administration as that sketched, all too imperfectly and
feebly, iu the preceding sections of this concluding chapter, cannot be
carried out in its true spirit, nor with the necessary intelligence and
vigor, by the agents at present engaged in the work. We have, happily,
even now, many heads of prisons, holding sound views, imbued with the
right spirit, thoroughly competent to the duties of their position, and
working with zeal and intelligence in fulfilment of their high mission.
These have a few able and well-qualified assistants, who are animated
by the same sentiments as themselves, and are lending to their aims and
eflbrts a noble and efficient co-operation. But the mass of prison officials,
throughout the country, are sadly deficient iu the broad intelligence,
good feeliug, self-control, sound common sense, high moral principle,
302 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
strong religious feeling, and other essential qualifications requisite to
their calling. It is idle to suppose that an equitable and humane —
above all, a reformatory — prison code can be carried out successfully,
where a fit administration cannot be had. To deal with delinquents,
not by short and sharp methods, but through such pains-taking, cautious,
and tardy processes as abstract justice indicates, and the attainment of
genuine and permanent reformatory results imperatively demands,
would require a class of agents which is yet, as a body, to be created,
^or, in my humble judgment, can such a creation ever be eftected, ex-
cept by special effort, special education, special training to that end.
The reformation of fallen humanity is a work as complex, as delicate, as
difficult, and demanding qualities and qualifications of intellect, judg-
ment, and heart as high and as broad as any ever committed to the hand of
man, and as worthy of being raised to the dignity of a regular calling or
profession as any other within the wide range of human employment.
If law, medicine, and divinity; if engineering, military command, and
school-keeping; if sculpture, painting, and music; if even every handi-
craft requiring mere manual dexterity demand a special technical edu-
cation and training in those who devote themselves to these callings,
why not equally the work and calling of a prison keeper, whose proper
business — the regeneration and redemption of fallen immortals, the cure
of souls all sick and leprous with sin — is the peer of any of them in
the dignity, grandeur, and beneficence of its aims. Mettray, with its
glorious chief, who had the wisdom to establivSh his training-school even
before he established his prison — Mettray, with its magnificent reforma-
tory results, as the fruit and demonstration of that wisdom — is a living,
visible, irrefragable argument in suj^port of the value, the imj)ortance,
the absolute necessity of a special preparation on the part of prison of-
ficers for their work. Let that argument, for i)resent purposes, stand
in the place of all others.
§ 20. The necessary complement of every prison system, which really
aims to reform its subjects, is a comprehensive and efficient agency for
the care of discharged prisoners. The moment of their liberation is, for
them and for society, so far as they are concerned, a crisis whose gravity
cannot easily be exaggerated. Their good intentions and their actual
improvement in i)rison are then severely tested. The question is
to be determined whether they will pursue the patli of virtue, or return
to crime. A few weeks, at most a few months, will, in all likelihood,
decide the point. The trial is often one of terrible severity to the dis-
charged convict. The temptations which surround him are strong and
pressing. There is a fearful conflict in his soul. He wishes to do right,
but is sorely urged to do wrong. He desires to stand, but trembles lest
he should fall. He would do good, but evil is present with him. He
starts at his own shadow. He feels that, like Cain, he is "a fugitive
and a vagabond on the earth." Terrible, indeed, are his struggles, for
he has foes within as well as without to combat. His soul is driven to
ahd fro Ijetween the frowns of the world and the upbraidings of con-
science. These awaken remorse; those, despair. What does the released
])riK0iH'r n(M'd in this, with him, suj)reme hour? First of all, sympathy,
which will act like a cordial upon his liruised and fainting heart. Then
he needs words of encouragement and hope, of wise and affectionate
counsel, which will still further refresh and strengthen his spirits. He
needs, moreover, i>ecuniary helj). Souie money or its equivalent he
must have, or crime iKicomes a necessity. The best j)rovision of this
kind wouhl be to allow him some share in his earnings as a prisoner,
to be retained for him to the day of his liberation ; but until such al-
CARE OF DISCHARGED CONVICTS. 303
lowatice is accorded, which is equally the dictate of justice and policy,
private benevolence, or, better still, the state, should extend some as-
sistance of this sort, enough at least to enable him to " make a start in
the world.'' But most of all, the discharged prisoner needs employment.
At the earliest possible moment, therefore, he should be put in a position
to help liimself. Self-help is the best help he can havB, for it gives in-
dependence, self-respect, and inward force. Sympathy, kind words,
good advice, are all excellent in their place 5 but they are useless — worse
than that, they are mockery— while you leave the man hungry and
shivering, with nothing to do. But back your words with acts ; give
work as well as counsel ; and then the words and the counsel have a
mighty power ; they become living forces.
Messrs. Haines and Howell, commissioners from the State of New
Jersey to the Congress of London, in the report submitted by them to
the governor of the State, have offered some excellent suggestions on
this point. After citing the declaration of the congress that "the
prisoner, on his discharge, should be systematically aided to obtain em-
ployment," the commissioners add :
" The truth of this sentiment has been frequently and painfully proved.
Prisoners who, when discharged, gave evidence of thorough reforma-
tion, and who sincerely believed that they could keep their solemn res-
olution to live honestly, for want of employment and consequent poverty,
and taunted, and sometimes threatened by those who knew of their con-
viction, have been driven to the haunts of vice and plunged again into
crime. With the aid of some friendly hand to afford them suitable em-
ployment and means of self-support, many such might have become good
citizens and contributors to the material wealth of the community.
"An agency for providing discliarged prisoners with employment is a
present and pressing necessity — one that is deeply and paiiifully felt.
In some States this has been committed to individual effort and benevo-
lent associations ; but it is obviously the duty of the State, and properly
devolving upon it. If the protection of society is to be secured by the
imprisonment and reformation of the convict, surely that protection
should be contiuued by such meiisures as will provide against a relapse
into crime and a repetition of the former process of punishment.
"An oflicer of the prison, or what would be more effectual, an agent
appointed for the purpose, charged with the duty of ascertaining the
capacity of the prisoner, and securing for him suitable employment,
would do much to promote the peace and safety of society, and secure
many unhappy persons from temptation and repetition of crime, and aid
in restoring them to the condition of useful citizens.
" If it be objected tliat the appointment of such an agent would increase
the offices of the prison and the expenses of the State, it may be an-
swered that such increased expense will prove to be the truest economy.
The investment of. the small sum for the salary and expenses of the
agent would insure large profits to the State by saving the charges of
lecouviction and support of the prisoner, and by rendering him, who had
been a burden, a contributor to the material property of the State.
" This is the tiuaucial and lowest point of consideration of the subject.
If we regard the moral and social effects of such a measure, and com-
pare the condition of one reconvicted, and his infiueuce upon his family
and the community, with that of one reformed and returned to the ranks
of honest and productive industry, we can have no doubt of the pro-
priety, the necessity, and the economy of such an office."
§ 21. So tar, the " suggestions and recommendations'' submitted by the
undersigned have been of a general character. He ventures to add a par-
304 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY CONGRESS.
agraj)}! more specific in its aim. The National Government has uo prisons
of its own. It has a criminal code and criminal courts. Men charged with
criminal oflenses are arraigned, tried, and convicted under its authority;
but, when so convicted, it has no prisons to which it can send them for
treatment. It iscompelled to sentence them for punishmentto the prisons
of the States in which they happen to have had their trial ; at least, such
is the general practice. It has no control, no influence, over the discipline
of the prisons to which they are committed. That discipline may be cru-
elly severe or unwisely lenient; it may make its subjects worse instead of
better; it may send them out more depraved and hardened than when
they entered, and more certain to continue their evil courses; but the
government has not a word to say; it cannot lift a finger; it cannot ex-
ert a single counteracting force; it can only sit silent and let the work of
corruption go on. Is this wise? Is it right! Is it statesmanship"? Has
the government no responsibility in regard to these men whom it has
convicted of crime I Is their salvation a matter in which it has no con-
cern, no interest, 710 duty? Is it not bound, in honor and conscience, to
try to reform them and send them back to society regenerated in pur-
-pose and in life, with the will and the power to eat bread earned by honest
toil"? If it has any such duty in regard to these men, can the obliga-
tion be discharged by sending them it knows not whither; by commit-
ting them to it knows not whom; by subjecting them to a treatment
which it has no power to control, and to iutluences in regard to which
it does not even know whether they are good or bad, salutary or perni-
cious! General Coburn, chairman of the Military Committee of the
House of Eepresentatives, and General Logan, chairman of the Military
Committee of the Senate, succeeded in getting an act passed by the last
Congress providing for the establishment of a United States prison, in
which prisoners tried and sentenced by military courts may receive the
benefits of a humane and reformatory discipline; for so the act declares
in express terms. Whatever reasons there may be for such a prison
and the a])plication of such a discipline in the case of military prison-
ers, there are many-fold more and more cogent reasons for such appli-
ances in the case of persons convicted of crime in the civil courts of the
United States, both because these latter are mucli more numerous and
because they stand in much greater need of a reformatory treatment, their
offenses being, for the most i)art, less against technical rules and more
against law and morality, and springing, thin-efore, from a deeper moral
taint. For these reasons, and others that might be adduced, the under-
signed does not hesitate to "suggest and recommend'' the immediate estab-
lisiim<;ntof one prison, at least, for the treatment of persons convicted by
the civil courts of the United States, and the addition of others iis they
may be hnind necessary or convenient, in which a discipline, based upon
t}i(^ principles s(^t forth in this closing cha[>ter of his rei)ort, may be hon-
estly, intelligently, and faithfully applietl.
All of which is respectfully submitted to the President:
E. C. WINES,
Commissioner, tOc, tfcc.
TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS,
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, JANUARY 21-24, 1873 ;
BEING THE
SECOND ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NATIONAL PRISON ASSOCIATION
OF THE UNITED STATES.
EDITED BY
E. C. WINES, D. D., LL. D.,
Secretary of the Association.
H. Ex. 185 20
TRANSACTIONS.
L— OPEXING ADDRESSES— ORGANIZATION— STANDING COM-
MITTEES—ROLL OF MEMBERS.
The National Prison Reform Congress, called under the auspices of
the National Prison Association of the United States, assembled at
Masonic Temple, Baltimore, Maryland, at 8 o'clock, p. m., January 21,
1873.
The Hon. Horatio Seymour, of New York, president of the Associa-
tion, took the chair in virtue of his office, and called the meeting to
order.
On invitation of the president, prayer was offered by the Rev. Samuel
J. Baird, D.D., of Virginia.
Governor Seymour then delivered the opening address, as follows:
GOVERNOR SEYMOUR'S ADDRESS,
The name of this association fails to give a full idea of its scope and
aims. In terms, they seem to be limited to that class of men who have
brought themselves under the penalties of the law. But the moment we
begin to study the character of criminals and the causes of crime, we
find that we are forced back to a scrutiny of our social system and of
the weakness as w,ell as the wickedness of our fellow-men. It is because
the subjects of pauperism and crime thus lead to an analysis of human
nature, and to the consideration of social aspects, that they have been
made matters of profound thought by able publicists and large-
minded statesmen. At first thought it seems that the condition of a
small body of men, who have offended local laws, should be left to the
thoughtful control of local authorities, but it is soon found that the con-
siderations involved are as broad as the spread of the human race.
For these reasons, leading men of different nations were drawn to-
gether at the late International Convention, at London. For these rea-
sons, this association was formed. Crime knows no geographical limits,
no boundaries of states. It is, in its nature, at war with the welfare of
the human race. It must be opposed by the united wisdom and virtue
of all nationalities and of all forms of civilization.
While local laws must frame penal codes, and local societies do the
work of lifting up fallen men, still much is gained by a wide-spread sym-
pathy and co-operation. There are many things which are beyond the
reach of state action, in a moral point of view ; things which do not
come under the cognizance of laws, but which deeply affect the welfare
of our whole country.
At the first view, our efforts seem to be limited to the justice which
punishes crime, and to the charity which tries to reform the criminal.
But we are soon led into a wider field of duty. We are apt to look,
upon the inmates of prisons as exceptional men, unlike the mass of our
people. We feel that they are thorns in the body politic, which should
be drawn out and jjut where they will do no more harm. We regard
308 NATIONAL PEISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
them as men wlio run counter to tlie currents of society, thus making
disorder and mischief. These are errors. In truth, they are men who
run with the currents of society, and who outrun them. They are men
who, in a great degree, are moved and directed by the impulses around
them ; their characters are formed by the civilization in which they move.
They are, in many respects, the representative men of a country. It is
a hard thing to draw an indictment against a criminal which is not, in
some respects, an indictment of the community in which he has lived. An
intelligent stranger, who should visit the prisons 'of foreign countries
and should hear the histories of their inmates, would get a better idea
of the inner workings of their civilization than could be gained by in-
tercourse with a like number of their citizens moving in the mere con-
ventional circles of society. As a rule, wrong-doing is the growth of
influences pervading the social system, as pestilences are bred by mala-
rias. Our study into this subject soon teaches us that prisons are moral
hospitals, M'here moral diseases are not only cared for, but science learns
the moral laws of life; where it learns what endangers the general welfare
of the community ; what insidious pestilential vapors permeate society,
carrying moral disease and death into its homes. Prisoners are men like
ourselves ; and if we would learn the dangers which lurk in our path-
ways, we must learn how they stumbled and fell. I do not doubt but
some men are more prone to vice than others. But after listening to
thousands of prayers for pardon, I can hardly recall a case where 1 did
not feel that I might have fallen as my fellow-man has done, if I had
been subjected to the same demoralizing influences and pressed by tlie
same temptations. I repeat here what I have said on other occasions,
that after a long experience with men in all conditions of life, after
having felt, as. much as most men, the harsh injustice springing from
the strife and passions of the world, I have constantly learned to think
more kindly of the hearts of men, and to think less of their heads.
If we flud that crimes are, in a large degree, the hot-bed growth of
social influences; if the weakness of human nature is always open to
their attacks; if they may, at any time, enter into our homes and strike
at the family circle, then we ihust at least guard against them as we do
against the pestilence.
To protect the public health and to learn the laws of lifp, we build
and sustain, with lib(U'al hands, hos|)itals where the sick and wouiided
can be cured. The moral hospital should be regarded with an equal
interest. In each of them we should seek to cure the inmates. In each
of them we shoidd seek to And out the secret causes of disease. With
regard to botli, we should always, in a large-minded way, feel that the
laws of nioial and jdiysical life are a thousand times more im])oitant to
tlie multitudes of the wcnld at large than they are to the few inmates
wh(» languish within their gloomy walls.
Tiie j)ublic hold in high honor the man of science who treads the walks
of the hospital to relieve suffering, to find out the facts which will en-
able him to war<l off sickness and death from others. This association
ap[)ea!s to thi; public for the same sympathy and sui)port for those who
labor to lift up tlunr unhappy brethren from moral degradation, and
at tlie same; time to do the greater work of ti'acing out the si)rings
and sources of <;rime, and of warning the i>ublic of its share of guilt in
sowing the secuis of immoralily by its tastes, maxims, and usages. Wo
love to think that the inmates of cells are unlike ourselves. AV\' would
like to disown our eornnion humanity with the downcast and depraved
We an; apt to thank (iod thaf we are not like other men ; but witli (;I().ser
study and deejjei' thonglit we lin<l they are oursehc^s, uiuler dill'erent
GOVERNOR Seymour's opening address. 309
circumstances. And the circumstances tliat made tliem what they are
abound in our civilization, and may, at any time, make otliers fall who
do not dream of danger.
It is a mistake when we hold that criminals are merely perverse men,
who are at war with social inflnences; on the other hand, they are the
outgrowth of those influences. Crimes always take the hues and aspects
of the country in which they are committed. They show not only guilty
men, but a guilty people. The world deems those nations to be debased
where crimes abound. It does not merely say that the laws are unwise,
or that the judiciary is corrupt, but it charges the guilt home to the
whole society. This is just; for most of the crimes wiiich disgraee us
could not be done if tliere W'as not an indifl'erence to their causes on the
part of the community. As certain plagues which sweep men into their
graves cannot rage without foul air, so many crimes cannot prevail
without wide-spread moral malaria. It is the greed for gold, the love of
luxury in the American people, which have caused the legislative frauds,
the municipal corruptions, the violations of trusts, which excite alarm
in our land. It is the admiration of wealth, no matter how gained,
which incites and emboldens the desperate speculator in commercial
centers to sport with the sacred interests of labor, to unsettle the busi-
ness of honest industry, by playing tricks with the standards of values.
Those who use the stocks' of great corporations as machines for gam-
bling schemes, are more deliberately and artfully dishonest than the
more humble swindler who throws his loaded dice. Many of the trans-
actions of our capitalists are more hurtful to the welfare of our people
than the acts of thieves and robbers. In the better days of American
simplicity, honesty, and patriotism, these things could not have been done.
No one would then have dared to face a people indignant at such rapa-
cious greed. Such influences have led to frauds, defalcations, breaches
of trust. They have filled our prisons and overwhelmed many house-
holds with shame and sorrow. Yet the authors of such things are
honored for their wealth, and we ask, with eagerness, how rich do they
get? and not, how do they get riches ?
To make the public feel that criminals are men of like passions with
ourselves, that crime is an infectious as well as a malignant disease, and
that its sources are not so much personal inclination as general demor
alizatiou, are the great first steps toward reform. When we feel that
disease may enter our own houses and seize upon the mental or moral
weaknesses of those we love, we are ready to study its causes and its
workings. We should then uphold and honor those men of humanity
and true statesmanship who study out the causes of moral stains, as we
honor and support those men of science who search out, in sick-rooms
or hospitals, the causes and courses of the complaints which kill the
body.
He who masters the diagnosis of crime gains a key to the mysteries
of oiir nature and to the secret sources of demoralization, which opens
to him a knowledge of the great principles of public and private reform,
the true methods of a good administration of laws. Pauperism and
crime have been made the subjects of earnest thought by the best and
wisest men of the w^orld, not only on account of their intrinsic interest.
but also on account of their relationshij) to all other matters of good
government. Neither of them can be driven out of existence; they will
always be problems to vex statesmanship ; but they must always be
battled with. In the social edifice they are like fires, ever kindling in
its ditt'erent parts, which are to be kept under by watchfulness and care.
If neglected, they burst out into the flames of anarchy and revolution,
and sweep away forms of government.
310 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
These subjects must be studied directly and in their moral aspects.
There is a pervading idea in our country that the spread of knowledge
■will check crime. No one values learning more than I do, but it is no
specific for immorality and vice. Without moral and religious training,
it frequently becomes an aid to crime. Science, mechanical skill, a
knowledge of business affairs, even the refinements and accomplish-
ments of life, are used by offenders against law. Knowledge fights on
both sides in the battle between right and wrong, at this age. It lays
siege to banks ; it forces open vaults stronger than old castles ; it forges
and counterfeits. The most dangerous criminal is the educated, intel-
lectual violator of the law, for he has all the resources of art at his
command — the forces of mechanics, the subtleties of chemistry, the
knowledge of man's ways and passions. Learning, by itself, only
changes the aspect of immorality. Virtue is frequently found with the
simple and uneducated, and vice with the educated. Surrounded by
glittering objects within their reach, our servant girls resist more temp-
tations thau any class in society.
We must look beyond the accidents of knowledge or ignorance, if we
wish to learn the springs of action. To check vice there must be high
moral standards in the public mind. The American mind must move
upon a higher plane. To reform convicts, their hopes must be aroused
and their better instincts worked upon. I never yet found a man so
untamable that there was not something of good on which to build a
hope. I never yet found a man so good that he need not fear a fall.
Through the warp and woof of the Morst man's character there run
some threads of gold, and in the best there are base materials. It is
this web of entwined good and evil in men's character which make the
problems and perplexities of the legislator and judge.
While there is no honest dealing with this subject unless the American
people are charged with their share of guilt, and while Christian charity
leads us to take the kindest view we can of every man, it does not follow
that crime should be dealt with in a feeble way. Let the laws be swift,
stern, and certain in their action. What they say, let them do; for
certainty, nuu'c than severity, carries a dread of punishment. Let the
ways of bringing oll'enders to justice be direct, clear, and untrammeled.
The technicalities of jdeading, ])roof, aiul ])roceedings, in many of our
States, are jiainlully absurd. To the minds of most men, a criminal
trial is a mysterious jumble. The jtublic have no confidence that the
worst criminal will be punished; the worst criminal cherishes, at all
times, a hope of escape. In every part of our country there is a vague
idea tliat certain men, of legal skill, can extricateofi'enders without regard
to the merits of their case. This is a fruitlul cause of crimes. There is
not, in the minds of the American ])eople, a clear, distinct conception
of our i)enal laws, their actions, and their results. Is'ot less hurtlul to
justice }ire those lluctuations of the jtublic mind, which shakes off, spas-
modically, its customary indifference; fiercely demands a conviction
of those \\ ho liajijien, !it such times, to be charged with crime ; ami thus
makes popular clamor take the place of judicial calmness and impar-
tiality.
^o one Icrls thai Hicrc is, in this coimhy, a ch^ai', sti'ong, even flow
of admiiiistiatioii of criniiiial laws. '1 lie iiiood of the popular juind has
too much to do wit li judicial proceedings.
1 he evils conncclcd with the administiat i(Ui of justice in our laud are
(\\\v, in a good degree, to the swift <'liang(s in the nuiteiial condition of
our country. An mm rease of our numbers of mow, than a million each
year, ol noi-e llian twenty-five hundied each day, of more than one hun-
GOVERNOR Seymour's opening address. 311
dred each hour, explains many of the causes of our overburdened sys-
tem of penal laws, framed for a different state of society. Our perplexi-
ties are increased by the fact that more than one-quarter of this daily
addition to our population is made up of those who come from other
countries, strangers to our customs and laws, and, in many instances,
ignorant of our language.
History gives no account of such vast increase of the numbers of any
country by constant, peaceful accretion. Conquest rarely makes as
many i^risoners of war as we make captives to the peaceful advantages
of our continent. They bring us wealth and power ; they also bring us
many problems to solve. British laws deal with British subjects. French
courts decide upon the guilt or innocence of Frenchmen. Germany
shapes, by its usages and customs, the ideas of right and wrong in the
minds of the Teutonic races. But we, in America, have to deal with
and act upon all nationalities, all phases of civilization. While these
facts palliate the defects of our penal laws and of their administration,
they certainly make more clear and urgent the duty which demands
that we keep pace with the swift changes going on around us. More
than .this, our circumstances enable us to take the lead in the great
work of reform, as we deal with more plastic materials than are found
in the fixed condition of older nations. Here, too, we have a broader
field, filled with men of varied phases and aspects of different civiliza-
tions, in which we can study the wants and weaknesses, the virtues and
vices of the human race.
For a series of years, nearly three hundred thousand emigrants have
been annually landed at the harbor of Xew York. Disorder and crime are
always active along the line of march of great armies. I believe there
is no instance in history of a movement of the human race so vast and
long continued. I am glad to state a fact which in some degree palliates
the disgrace which attaches to the administration of justice and the con-
duct of public affairs in that great city. But I should fall short of telling
the whole truth if I did not also say that the discredit of that great city
mainly springs from the sad fact that its men of wealth, as a body, lack
that genuine self-respect which leads to a faithful, high-minded per-
formance of the duties each citizen owes to the public.
Is there any other basis upon which we can found this great work of
patriotism and philanthropy than the one contemplated by. this associa-
tion °J It may, at first view, seem to be limited to a small class, but it
opens up iuto a broad field of unpartisan, unsectarian labor. The objects
we have in view, although they make our prisons their starting-point,
are so wide in their bearings that they brought together, at the London
international association, in the interests of our common humanity, men
of the best minds, from most of the countries of Europe and America.
These, in despite of their differences of creeds, usages, language, and
form of civilizatiou, could acb in accord in devising measures to lift up
the fallen, and to spread the princii)les of morality and justice among
the peoples of the world. It is found that true statesmanship, like true
religion, begins with visiting the prisoners and helping the poor.
It is certain that in our own country Edward Livingston, the public
man who ranks highest in European regard for intellectual ability,
gained his position by his great work, "The Penal Laws of Louisiana."
When it was the fashion in the scientific world to hold that men and
animals were dwarfed on this continent, this work was brought forward
by our friends in Europe as a proof that statesmanship was full-grown
here. It is a remarkable fact that an able foreign writer selected the
Louisiana code and the proclamation of General Jackson against the
312 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
doctrine of secession as the two ablest productions of tlie American
mind, not knowing that the^' both came from the same pen. An expo-
sition of Mr. Livingston's system has lately been published in France,
under the auspices of the French Institute, by M. Charles Lucas, a
member of the Institute, and formerly president of the council of inspect-
ors of the penal institutions of that country. M. Lucas is a distin-
guished writer and leader in the work of criminal reform. He belongs
to that body of large-minded, philanthropic men who seek to benetit
humanity by wise systems of legislation. A certain breadth and reach
of mind mark all those men who have entered uj^on the study of penal
laws and the reformation of criminals.
The Louisiana code is not only remarkable as the product of one
man's mind — and I know of no like instance in history — but it is also
distinguished by the fact that its republication is called for after the
lapse of half a century. The new edition has an able introduction by
Chief Justice Chase.*^ Only fleeting honors are gained by those who
deal with the passing phases of society, while enduring honors are won
by those who grasj) the lasting problems of government and laws. It is
to be hoped that our statesmen will learn to follow in the higher path-
ways marked out by Mr. Livingston.
While there is much to condemn in our system of laws and their
administration, there is much to admire in the practical workings of
many of our iirisons. In some respects we are in advance of other
peoples. Much has been done in many of our States to improve the con-
dition of criminals, and much more to rescue the young from courses of
vice and destruction. I should be glad to speak of the instances of
ability and self-devotion shown by men who have charge of public or
private charities established for the reformation of offenders. They
would lend a weight to my argument which my reasoning cannot give.
But I must leave these things to be brought out by the discussions of
this congress. I only seek to show the ends at which it aims. I only
seek to invoke for it the sympathy and support of the public in its
efforts to combine and organize the forces of those who, in different parts
of our country, are working in this field of philanthropic and patriotic
labor.
Crime has its origin in the passions which live in every breast and in
the weaknesses which mark every character. In its nature it concerns
each of us as clearly as the common liability to fall prematurely before
disease and death. No man can know human nature, no man can be
a great teacher to his fellow-men, no man can frame laws wisely and
well, who has not studied character in convict life. There he can best
see the lights and shadows of our nature; see in strongest contrasts
what is good and what is bad.
Tiie ])ris()ns, to which all vice tends, are the points from which the
i-eforms can best be urged which seek to find out where vice begins.
Starting liom the sad ends of crime, and running back along their
tracks, it is seen tliat in a largr degree they are engendered by public
tastes, lialnts, and demoralizations. Jt is in our prisons tliat we can
best learn tlie corrupting intlueiu'es about us whicli lead the weak as
well as tli(; wicked sistray ; ay, and sometimes make the strong man
lall into disgrace and misery.
In these moral iiospitals the thouglitlul man, the ])]iilanthroi)ist, and
the Htat;<'sman will look for the causes of sixiial danger and demoraliza-
tion. AVhen we begin at th<' prison and work up, we find oi)ening before
us all the sf)Ui'ces of crime; all the problems of soeial order and discmler;
all til" yicjil (piestious w itli which statesiiianshi]». in dealing with the
MK. Jones's address of welcome. 313
interests and welfare of a ])eople, ninst cope when it seekyto lift up high
standards of virtue and patriotism.
In the most highlj^ civilized countries, the subjects of pauperism and
crime secure the most attention and thought. They turn men's minds
from seltish to unselfish fields of labor. Those who enter those fields
will find in them marks of toil and care by the best human intellects.
The grandest minds have worked at their intricate problems. The
ambition of the first Napoleon sought to gain immortality in his code
of laws as well as in victories on the field of battle.
Much has been done, in many of our States, to improve prison disci-
pline. Something has been done toward reforming piisoners; but the
larger view of the subject, which looks to the moral health of society
and the baleful influences at work in its organization, has not received
the atteutiou which it deserves.
When prisons are visited by men of mind, when prisoners are looked
upon with kindly eyes by those who can study their characters and
learn from them the virtues, the vices, and the wickedness which mark
our race, and who, tracing* back the courses of their lives, shall find
the secret sources of their errors and their crimes, then we shall have
not only our laws justly enforced and reform wrong-doers ; but, more
and better than these, we shall gain a public virtue and intelligence
which will secure the safety and happiness of our homes, the glory
and stability of the republic. Then wealth gained by unworthy means
will no longer be respected.
No one can recall the events of the past few years, particularly those
of the great commercial centers, without feeling that there is au ebb-
tide in American morals. Not a little of the glitter of our social and
business life is the shining of putrescence. Fungous men have shot up
into financial prominence, to whom a pervading, deadening moral
malaria is the very breath of life. They could not exist without this,
any more than certain poisonous plants can flourish without decaying
A^egetatiou.
While I have tried to present in clear terms the claims of this asso-
ciation upon the imblic sympathy- and support, it must be understood
that we claim for it only the merit of being a useful auxiliary to moral
and religious teachings. If those who take part in its work should fall
short of its broader, higher objects of a national character, they will at
least get this great gain — they will learn to think more humbly of them-
selves, more kindly of their fellow-men, and to see more clearly the
beauties of Christian charity.
MR. JONES'S ADDRESS.
The Hon, Isaac D. Jones, late attorney-general of Maryland, welcomed
the members of the congress in the following remarks:
Mr. President, Members of the National Prison Association,
AND ALL WHO HAVE ASSEMBLED IN THIS CITY TO ATTEND THE PRISON
Eeform Congress : On behalf of the Prisoners' Aid Association of
Maryland, and of all our citizens, I have been requested to extend to
you the right hand of fellowship ; to offer you, in their name, a cordial
reception, and to bid you a most hearty Maryland welcome. This pleas-
ant duty had been assigned, as was most fit, to our distinguished and elo-
quent fellow-citizen, his excellency the governor of Maryland. I am sure
all will unite with me in regret that the condition of his health has de-
prived us of the honor of his presence, and him of the pleasure of meeting
you on this occasion, as I am sure he would have done, with a most cor-
314 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
dial greeting. You need no assurance from me of liis sympathy or of
his readiness to render all the aid in his power in accomplishing the
good work in which you are engaged. It is indeed a good work ; a great
and important work ; a noble charity and Christian duty. The congress
of representatives of many of the most important nations of the earth,
which met in London in July last, indicated the deep interest which has
been aroused throughout the civilized world in the success of this work.
It involves one of the most difficult and yet vital problems connected
with the administration of civil government. It grows in importance
and extent the more you contemplate it. Beginning with those now in
prison under condemnatiou and sentence, and considering what can be
done toward impressing them vrith a pro]ier sense of their crime, and
the duty of repentance and reformation, and how, if i^ossible, they may
be restored to useful, honest citizenship ; then looking into the criminal
code, and i)onderiug its provisions and its administration in our courts
and by our juries, and remedying, as far as possible, such defects in
both as may be discovered, a far more extensive field is opened to the
inquiry, what can and must be done to resist the swelling tide of crime,
and to prevent its sweeping away the barriers which i^rotect not only
property, but the security of our homes, the quiet, peace, and safety of
social life, and even life itself, and to induce all classes of our people to
lead honest, industrious, sober, and useful lives? It is too plain to ob-
servation and experience for any doubt, that the principal sources of
this destructive flood of vice and misery are ignorance and idleness.
"What shall be the remedy for these 1 Where and with whom shall we
begin with the best prospect of success ? Undoubtedly with those who
are young and as yet uncontaminated. And as to these, have all the
experience of the ages and the boasted discoveries of modern science
found out anything better thau the good old proverb, " Train up a child
in the way he should go f '
And then comes the question, IIow and by whom shall he be trained?
What are the duties of i)areutal training; what the duty of the State
in providiug the most eflicient system of education ? And, most import-
ant of all, upon what foundation sliall the superstructure of education
be erected ? I beg pardon for having, I fear, already gone beyond the
limits assigned me. But as my heart is deeply impressed with the solemn
importance of the subjects, at which I have merely hinted, I beg most
respectfully, in this ]>resence — where so many of the men of thought,
men deservedly high in the i)ublic confidence, aiul in the councils of onr
country, are asscml)led — to declare my most solemn and i)rofound convic-
tion that any system of education which does not include the recog-
nition of the existence and attributes of the God of the Bible, and of
man's moral resi)onsibility as an innnortal being, will utterly fail to " train
up a child in the way he should go;" will utterly fail to impress the
youthful mind with that reverence for truth, purity, justice, and right,
and for tin; laws of God and of his country, which shall render him a
good, law-abiding <;itiz('n.
And now, Mv. J 'resident, renewing the assurance of a most cordial
welcome, ix'iinit me to express the, hope that your stay with us may be
l»Icasant, and (hat llic ilclibrrations of llic piison congress may lead to
the, best results.
MR. KERR'S ADDRESS'.
The Hon. ^U\ Kerr, M. ('., of Indiana, in icsponding to the welcoming
address of iMr. Jones, said :
Mr. President : When the executive oi Indiana commissioned me as
MR. kerr's address. 315
a delegate to this body, lie invited me to duties which I consider most
honorable and important. IMy only reg;ret is, that the exacting- duties
of service in another Congress compel me to decline their performance,
beyond attendance upou this opening meeting.
The interest and safety of society demand, primarily, that crime shall
be restrained and punished. There is no element in (;rinunal adminis-
tration that contributes so effectively to hold in check the criminally
disposed as the certainty of punishment. Nothing tempts the wicked
more strongly to the per[>etration of crime than the hope of escape with
impunity. It is, therefore, the obvious duty of every citizen to aid in
whatever way he has opportunity to maiutain and increase the certainty
of the faithful execution of the law's judgments. Even an imperfect
criminal law thus enforced will prove more salutary in its intluence
upou society than a good and wise law loosely, haltingly, or htfully
executed. I believe the experience of all countries and governments
verifies these propositions. It results as our duty, that, in all our efforts
to promote reforms in connection with the administration of criminal
law, we should studiously'- avoid any policy that would tend to defeat
the operation of these essential principles.
But while certainty of execution is essential to the success of criminal
law and the protection of society, it is equally important that the just
and impartial judgments of the law shall be executed upon the offender
in the spirit of rational sympathy and mercy. The aim of all laws
should be to punish and improve. Society has no right to enforce its
punitive decrees with cruelty or torture. Such agencies do not tend to
reform, but to humiliate, to enrage, to crush, to brutalize. If punish-
ment alone be the object of the law, it cannot be best attained by such
means. If you would sharpen the edge or intensify the sting of public
punishment, you must cultivate the sensibilities, the conscience, the
moral perceptions of your victim. The brutal man cannot suffer in any
beneficial or reformative sense. The state whose punitive policy tends
to brutalize its offenders becomes itself an enemy of society in an im-
portant sense. lu truth, civilized and Christian society should never
cease to remember that, "'tis excellent to have a giant's strength, but
tyrannous to use it like a giant." A brutalized convict, set free, is a worse
m'an than before, and more disposed than ever to prey upon society ; but if
the offender be treated, during imprisonment, as a moral and rational
creature, capable of being made better, a very different and much better
result will follow. The temporary loss of personal liberty is exacted of
the wrong-doer for the safety of society; but imprisonment cannot con-
tinue always. Therefore, even intelligent selfishness, as well as humanity,
demands that, during confinement, the offender, if possible, be made a
better man. In almost all cases this can be done.
The inherent enormity of crime ought never to be denied or palliated
to the criminal, or reduced in the popular estimation, but rather magni-
fied, as of necessity it will be just in proportion to the increased enlight-
enment of the individual and of tlie popular judgment and conscience.
Yet it becomes legislators and i^rison oflicers to bear always in mind,
that, in the evil antecedents and surroundings of birth, in the law of
hereditary descent, in the misguiding intiuences of evil associations, of
ignorance, of abject poverty, and of social neglect and ostracism, there
are to be found many suggestions that should excite an earnest sympa-
thy and a merciful forbearance. In subordination to the safety and
parity of society the offender should have the full benefit of these sug-
gestions. They appeal in his behalf to the best impulses of enlight-
ened and just men. It is not improper or injurious in any way, nor
316 NATIONAL PRISON EEFOEM CONGRESS OF 1873.
does it savor of undue sentiinentalism to award to the crimiual, in his
prison treatment, tbe advantages which result from these couvsideratious.
They forbid any sytem of treatment which does violence to obvious
laws of health, or of healthful action of mind or body, within prison
limits, or to the admitted laws of human improvement. A man dis-
eased, or a man filled with dogged anger, or made morbid by solitary
confinement, or wounded in his self-esteem by harsh or brutal treatment,
is in a poor frame of mind to receive kindly, or to be impressed by, any
formal instructions or admonitions. Indeed, under such circumstances,
it is safe and logical to assume that all efforts for moral improvement
of the convict are simply wasted. The great law of kindness, of humane
interest and intelligent sympathy, can alone temper authority with in-
struction in such manner as to guarantee the best results. This is the
constant experience of intelligent beings in all the relations of daily
life. Why, then, shall not these benign principles be admitted within
the prison walls ? If improvement is to be the result of punishment, they
may not, must not be excluded. If, indeed, the object of society is to
transform our penitentiaries into moral pest-houses, and to add fuel to the
base passions of their inmates, then eliminate these God-like and mer-
ciful principles, and leave cold, harsh, untempered, naked authority to
rule and ruin. Butit is not thus that the wise and good should desire, or
can afford, to govern the bad. The primary object of all punitive dis-
cipline, after confinement at healthful, useful, and regular labor, should
be the reformation of the criminal. This is required by the highest in-
terests of society, by the dictates of the truest civilization, by the best
teachings of religion, and by the unconscious appeals of the poor, igno-
rant, or stolidly wicked violators of law. The silent supplication of
sinful and fallen humanity to its rulers is for light and strength, for
education of the head and heart, for the cultivation of latent virtue,
for the revival of neglected and abused manhood, and for the restora-
tion of self-respect, to the end that, when the State shall bid the convict
resume his personal liberty, he may also possess the morality, courage,
and intelligence necessary for self-government. The intrinsic excellence
of a system which secures these results in any substantial degree is
above all comparison with any system of mere authority. It may ^
said that these results are not attainable in all cases. I admit it ; but
even the most desperate offenders are not insensible to the influences of
kindness, justice, and good example. These elements, whenev^er illus-
trated in prison government by the olhcers, will surely command the
respect of the inmates, however bad they may be, and will therefore
certainly exercise a more reformatory influence than the policy of force,
or fear, or the lash. I would not have these principles carried out in
prison government from any mere maudlin or humanitarian sentiment
of symi)athy with criminals, the enemies of society and law, but rather
out of a di'sire to promote tlie highest aims and noblest objects of both
society and law. J>y such treatment of the bad I would increase the
essential w«'lfarc and security of the good. Then such discipline of the
wi(;ked would iea(;t upon tlieir associates in society, and become an
additional aid in the ]nevention of crime.
J)o you ask me wliat our country now most needs to give impetus and
power to true and ]K'rmanent penitentiary i-eform ? 1 answer that, in
my JM(lg?nent, it is tin; oigani/ation ol" our ])iison governments in the
p(!i',soiis of honest, practical, well -poised, ciilti\ated, humane, and earnest
men ; not mere (loctrhuiircs or dreanu'rs, not devotees of pe(;uliar system,"*
or special crotchets; but i»iactical iiieii, men of affairs, of courage, of
education, of a liigh giadcol niiinhood.and of generous impulses as well as
MK. hageman's remakks. 3 ] 7
incorruptible integrity. Here, then, is a new field and a good one,
much neglected heretofore, for useful and beuoiicent civil service reform.
I hope you will, with emphasis, call the attention of our law makers and
api^ointing powers throughout the States to its importance, and invoke
their intelligent aid in its accomplishment. Bad or corrupt men, placed
in control of convicts, speedily become worse themselves, and are quite
powerless to improve others. The relation affords a severe test of char-
acter even in the best. Good and true and brave men alone should be
given such a command. The influence of strong will, just character,
and high moral tone in officers, is at once apparent upon the offenders.
The latter are seldom so base as not to appreciate and respect such ofU-
cers, and be beneficially influenced by their supervision, example, and
instruction. The importance of having such officers cannot be over-
estimated.
Prison discipline, to be most effective and fruitful of good, should
always have a discriminating relation to the antecedents, the personal
qualitiCvS, the mental capacity, and the moral development of the indi-
vidual offenders. Otherwise there will be little ground for hope of true
and tasting reform. Therefore the law should require prison officers to
be supplied with faithful reports of whatever is known, touching the
careers of convicts. Then officers will be enabled to make more judi-
cious classifications, to apply discipline and instruction with intelligent
reference to individual needs and conditions, and to protect prisoners
from the evil results of unsuitable or improper associations. How in-
dispensable it is for the attainment of all these good and worthy aims,
that oil prison officers be absolutely trustworthy and suitable men. If
they are not, no amount of wisdom in the law makers, or in the mere
letter of the statute, can accomplish the desired results. If they are,
they will not fail to accomplish very great good even under imperfect
and vicious laws, for they will be wiserandbetter than the statute, and,
without violating it, they will obey the better impulses and requirements
of enlightened humanity. The friends of prison reform may, therefore,
do great good by earnest agitation in favor of the appointment of better
and more suitable men for prison rulers.
It is most ungenerous trifling with the best interests of society and of
unfortunate human beings to select prison ofiicers from political or par-
tisan motives. Personal fitness and qualifications alone should be the
test. Party politics have no business in penitentiaries any more than
in Sabbath- schools or insane asylums. They are bad enough in Con-
gress. I don't mean this congress, but that more pretentious institution
over at Washington. If you would establish a new claim, therefore,
upon the public gratitude, see to it that politics be kept out of prison
government. The higher motives and precepts of unselfish philan-
thropy and Christian charity should preside in such institutions.
3IR. HAGEMAN'S REMARKS.
The president called on Mr. John F. Hageman, of New Jersey, for
remarks, who said that he did not know why he had been thus distin-
guished, unless it was that he came from New Jersey, a State which ex-
ecutes her laws, and where there is no connivance between courts and
juries, and where juries do not hesitate to convict when the facts warrant
such a verdict. Yet, for all that, New Jersey believed in prison reform
and a reformatory prison discipline, and was in full sympathy with the
objects and work of this congress, and of the National Prison Associa-
tion, at whose call it had been convened. He said that religious in-
318 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF J 873.
struction and church services were employed with the best results iu
the prisons of his State. Industrial labor was also found a highly re-
formative agency. He might be wrong, but he did not approve of the
system of unbroken silence observed, theoretically at least, in most of
the prisons. Talking did men a great deal of good. Outside workers.
Christian men and women of judgDieut and piety, must be admitted,
under proper restrictions, into our i^risoos; secular schools and Sunday-
schools should be established in them. Our reformatory agencies must
be enlarged and made more comprehensive.
APPOINTMENT OF COMMITTEES.
The following standing committees were then, on motion, appointed
by the chair :
Committee on Fermanent Organization. — Hon. P. T. Miller, of Missouri;
Kev. T. K. Fessenden, of Connecticut; J. Merrefield, of Maryland; Col-
onel Burr, of Ohio; J. M. Talcott, of Rhode Island; Dr. Wright, of
Tennessee ; and Mr. Powell, of jSTew York.
Business Committee. — Hon. 0. I. Walker, of Michigan; Dr. Wines, of
Xew York ; Eev. A. Woodbury, of Rhode Island ; Dr. E. W. Hatch, of
Connecticut; G. S. Griffith, of Maryland; Samuel Allinson, of New
Jersey ; and H. Thane Miller, of Ohio.
Committee on Finance. — Murray Shipley, of Ohio ; Hon. Edward Earle,
of Massachusetts ; John E. Develin, esq., of New York ; W. R. Lin-
coln, of Maryland; Hon. G. W. Hall, of Pennsylvania; Hon. Frederick
Smyth, of New Hampshire; and Hon. Cyrus ]\Iendeuhall, of Kentucky
Committee on Credentials. — Win. A. Wisong and J. H. Brown, of Mary-
laud; and Rev. J. L. Milligan, of Pennsylvania.
OEaANIZATION OF THE CONGRESS.
The Committee on Permanent Organizations subsequently reported,
and the congress was organized with the following ofiticers:
Fresident. — Hon. Horatio Seymour, New York.
Vice-Fresidents. — Dr. E. W. Hatch, Connecticut; Charles E. Felton,
Illinois; Hon. M. C. Kerr, Indiana; S. H. Craig, Iowa ; Hon. K. F. Pritch-
ard, Kentucky; G. S, Grillith, Maryland; Hon. Edward Earle, Massa-
chusetts; Hon. C. I. Walker, Michigan; Professor W. F. Phelps, Min-
n<*sota ; General B. B. Eggleston, Mississippi ; General James L. Miner,
3Iissouri ; Hon. Frederick Smyth, New Hampshire; John F. Hageman,
esq.. New Jersey; II. W. Bellows, D. D., New York ; Colonel Raymond
Burr, Ohio; Hon. Richard Vaux, Pennsylvania; General N. Viall,
Rhode Island; General C. J. Stolbrand, South Carolina; Dr. W. M.
Wright, Tennessee ; S. J. Baird, D. J)., N'irginia; Hon. Tliomas Swee-
ney, West Virginia ; Hon. Alexander Mitchell, Wisconsin ; F. W. Howe,
Distiir-t of (Columbia; A. l\ Rockwood, Utah.
Secretaries. — If. A. Monfort, Ohio; Dr. J. C. Carpenter, District of Col-
umbia; Itev. William (,)uinn. New York.
Treasurer. — .Murray Shipley, Ohio.
Official Reporter. — Rev. Wm. H. Tiftauy, New York.
EOLL OF MKMIiERS.
The (lommittee on (Jredentials subsequently reported the following
roll of nuMubers :
Ai.AHAMA. — Not represented.
Arkansas. — Not represented.
ORGANIZATION ROLL OF MEMBERS. 319
California. — Not represented.
Connecticut. — Dr. E. W. Hatch, superiDtendent State reform school,
West Meriden ; David P. Nichols, president of board of trustees State
reform school, Danbury ; George Langdon, trustee State reform school,
Plymouth ; Hiram Foster, secretary of board of trustees State reform
school, West Meriden ; Eev. Geo. W. Wooding, chaplain of state prison,
Wethersfield ; Eev. I. H. Bradford, superintendent of girls' industrial
reform school, Middletown ; H. D. Smith, trustee of girls' industrial re-
form school, Plantsville; Kev. Thos. K. Fessenden, (executive ai^point-
meut,) Farmington ; Hon. Henry Barnard, Hartford.
Delaware. — Not represented.
Florida. — Not represented.
Georgia. — Not represented.
Illinois. — Charles E. Felton, superintendent of house of correction,
Chicago.
Indiana. — Hon. Michael C. Kerr, M. C, New Albany.
Iowa. — S. H. Craig, warden of state prison, Fort Madison.
Kansas. — Not represented.
Kentucky. — Hon, K. F. Pritchard, (executive appointment,) Cattles-
burg; Dr. J. F. South, (executive appointment,) Bowling Green; Hon.
J. T. Gray, (executive appoiutment,) Louisville; Cyrus Mendenhall,
Newport; Hon. K. K. White, manager of house of refuge, Louisville.
Louisiana. — Not represented.
Maine. — Not represented.
Massachusetts. — Eev. jMarcus Ames, superintendent of industrial
school for girls, Lancaster; Hon. Edward L. Pierce, secretary of board
of State charities, Boston ; Hon. Edward Earle, member board of State
charities, Worcester; Hon. Benj. Evans, superintendent State reform
school, Westborough.
Maryland. — G. S. Griffith, president prisoners' aid society, Balti-
more ; Eev. Penford Doll, agent i^risoners' aid society, Baltimore ;
Professor T. D. Baird, Samuel Townsend, Eichard Janney, Chas. W.
Slagle, J. Harman Brown, Wm. A. Wisong, Ira C. Canfield, Jos. Merre-
field, members prisoners' aid society, Baltimore ; Thos. S. Wilkinson,
warden of iDeuitentiary, Baltimore ; Henry Seim, director of peniten-
tiary board, Baltimore; E. V. Page, clerk of jjenitentiary board, Bal-
timore; J. H. Irvin, warden of city jail, Baltimore; A. W. Duke, visi-
tor of city jail, Baltimore ; W. E. Lincoln, superintendent of house of
refuge, Baltimore; L. A. Byerly, director of house of refuge, Balti-
more ; J. S. Liucoln, superintendent of boys' home, Baltimore ; Wil-
liam Palmer, agent of the Henry Watson children's aid society, Balti-
more; Mrs. Penfleld Doll, assistant agent of prisoners' aid society,
Baltimore.
Mississippi. — General B. B. Eggleston.
Missouri. — General Jas. L. Miner, (executive appointment,) Jefferson
City; Hon. P. T. Miller, (executive ap])ointment,) Jefferson City; Miss
Linda Gilbert, Saint Louis ; Mrs. A. W. Eichardson, Saint Louis.
Michigan. — Hon. C. I. Walker, chairman board commissioners penal
and charitable institutions, Detroit; Eev. Chas. Johnson, superinten-
dent of reform school, Lansing; Hon. J. I. Mead, member of board of
reform school, Lansing.
Minnesota. — Professor Wm. P. Phelps, president State normal school,
Winona; Hon. E.G.Butts, inspector State prison, Stillwater; H. A.
Jackman, warden State prison, Stillwater; Mrs. S. B. Jackman, Still-
water.
Nebraska. — Not represented.
Nevada. — Not represented.
320 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
'Se\y Hampshire. — Hon. F. Smytli, ex-governor and president pris-
oners' aid association, Manchester; Allen Folger, member prisoners'
aid association, Concord.
New Jersey. — John F. Hageman, esq., district attorney, Princeton j
L. H. Sbelden, snperintendent State reform school, Jamesburg; Mrs. L.
E. Dodge, matron of girls' industrial school, Trenton; Samuel Allinsou,
member of board of State reform and girls' industrial schools, Yardville.
North Carolina. — Not represented.
New York. — Rev. Dr. H. W. Bellows, vice-president national prison
association. New York ; Rev. Dr. Wines, secretary national prison asso-
ciation. New York; Mrs. Wines; Rev. W. H. Tiffany, official reporter,
Ston}^ Creek ; Aaron M. Powell, national temperance society and pub-
lication house, New York ; Hon. John E. Develin, member board man-
agers of Catholic protectory, New York ; Rev. William Quinn, advisory
chaplain of Catholic protectory, New York ; Brother Teliow, rector of
Catholic protectory, New Y^ork ; George B. Cline, Roselyn.
Ohio. — Col. Raymond Burr, warden of penitentiary, Columbus ; H.
S. Monfort, superintendent of house of refuge, Cincinnati ; H. Thane
Miller, esq., director of house of refuge, Cincinnati ; Murray Shipley,
director of house of refuge, Cincinnati.
Oregon. — Not represented.
Pennsylvania. — Hon. Richard Vaux, president of board of inspec-
tors, eastern penitentiary, Philadelphia ; George W. Hall, member of
Philadelphia prison society, Philadelphia ; Edward H. Coates, member
of Philadelphia prison society, Philadelphia; Thomas A. Robinson,
Philadelphia Magdalen society, Philadelphia; Dr. Joseph Parrish,
I)resident of association for the cure of inebriates. Media ; T. J. Big-
ham, president of reform school board, Pittsburgh; Rev. J. L. Milligan,
chaplain of western penitentiary, Allegheny ; George Albree, director of
Allegheny County workhouse, Pittsburgh ; J. D. Carlisle, Allegheny
County prison society, Pittsburgh ; Rev. W. A. Fuller, chaplain of Al-
legheny County workhouse, Claremout; J. P. Fleming, director Alle-
gheny County workhouse, Pittsburgh ; George R. White, director Alle-
gheny County workhouse, Pittsburgh.
Rhode Island. — Gtuieral N. Viall, warden of state prison. Provi-
dence; Rev. Augustus Woodbury, president board of state prison in-
sj)ectors, Providence ; James M. Talcott, superintendent of reform
school, l^rovidence.
South Carolina. — General C. J. Stolbrand, warden of State prison,
(executive appointment,) Columbia.
Tennessee. — Dr. ^V. M. Wright, inspector of state prison and
branches, Nashville.
Texas. — Not represented.
Vermont. — Not rei)resented.
Virginia. — Rev. Dr. S. J. Baird, Waynesborough.
West Virginia. — Hon. Thomas Sweeney, Wheeling; Thomas P.
Shalh^ros.s, wanlon of state ]»ris()n, .Aloundsville.
Wisco.NSj.N. — Not rei)resent('(l.
TIORIMTOIMIOS.
Dis'i'incT ()!•" ('olcmiua. — i'\ W. IIowo, sujuMintendent reform school,
Wa.sliington ; Dr. .1. JO. Carpenter, trustee ot reform school, Washing-
ton.
Utah. — A. r. IfocUwood, warden of penitentiary, Salt Lake City.
foreign countries.
Finland.— Dr. Felix Heckle, Helingsfors.
ANNUAL EEPOKT OP^ EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 321
II.— ANNUAL REPORTS OF SECRETARY AND STANDING COM-
MITTEES OF THE NATIONxlL PRISON ASSOCIATION.
1. Report of the secretary.
The undersigued respectfully offers for his second annual report as
Secretary of the National Prison Association, the report which he had the
honor to submit to the President of the United States as commissioner
of the Government to the International Penitentiary Congress of Lon-
don, and which is printed in the preceding part of the present volume.
E. C. WINES,
Secretarij.
2. Report of the executive committee.
The aim of the executive committee in the present report is to set be-
fore the national prison association and the people of the United States
certain views relating to prison management, whose prevalence in
society they deem of the highest importance — views which must take
hold of the general public before any practical application of them
will be allowed in our prison administration. These principles are doubt-
less familiar to the delegates to this congress, but not too familiar, and
certainly not too operative even with them ; and we know they will ex-
cuse some reiteration of commonplaces, for the sake of the end in
view, which is the unfolding of those principles of human nature, in the
light of which prison science can alone safely and steadily advance.
We offer, then, nothing local, circumstantial, or historical; nothing
specifically American ; and nothing directly connected with the work of
the past year, but only an unfolding of certain ideas and principles
deemed vital to our cause.
Some twenty years ago Captain Alexander Maconochie, an English
naval officer, and a man of exceptional insight into the laws of human
nature, with a transcendent desire to aid its worst specimens to conquer
their vices and weaknesses, conceived and carried out a scheme for the
reform of prisoners and convicts, in the penal colony at Norfolk Island,
Australia, and subsequently of the juvenile prisoners in Birmingham
jail, England, which, although well known among students of prison
discipline, is just beginning to attract the attention of the general pub-
lic. Sir Walter Crofton adopted and improved upon Macouochie's sug-
gestions, and inaugurated a similar system in Ireland, where ir has
become the admiration, example, and chief hope of all practical stu-
dents of the new social science of prison discipline.
There was published, in thf^ annual report of the association for 1871,
a resume oi the principles of Macouochie's system, made by Dr. Wines,
the learned, devoted, and persistent leader of American reformers in
prison discipline. This admirable essay contains more to instruct and
encourage the friends of criminals, and the hopes for an improved
human society, than anything elsewhere to be found, excepting the
original papers which furnished the ground-work of it. Before statiug
what those principles are, when traced to the root from which they
spring, we wish to draw attention to a less usual view of the importance
of the study of prison discipline, as a general study of human nature^
reflecting immense light, not easily obtained by any other process, upon
the whole science of education, domestic discipline, training for life,
and even the administration of religion. Students in medicine know
the vast importance of the opportunities afforded by public hospit*^
H. Ex. 185 21
322 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873,
for the study of the laws of health, and the conditions of cure in general
practice. Morbid anatomy, too, throws valuable light upon the organs
and functions of health. Insane asylums have become schools of study
for psychologists; and the laws of reason and the discipline of intelli-
gence and will are better understood by the careful study of abnormal
fancies and deranged minds. In like manner, a profound consideration
of the dispositions and tendencies that lead to crime, made in reforma-
tories and prisons, reveals the errors of our domestic training, exhibits
the prevalent faults of our school discipline, and throws a clear light on
the defects of our social system. A study of the crude character, low
tendencies, paralysis of will, morbid imagination, stupefied conscience,
and gross sensuality of the criminal class, brought under prison restraint,
opens a profound view into the working of our whole social system,
I)oints to the weak spots in our common nature, exhibits the defects in
the laws and administration of our system of government, and shows
how ill-formed is the public opinion that rules communities.
Without formally arraigning society, or beating the air with com-
plaints that have no definite end, in the attempt to remove difficulties
connected with the condition of prisoners, principles are developed,
rights brought out, and facts disclosed, which must inevitably, sooner
or later, produce wide changes in the whole conception of this subject —
changes which will prepare for radical reforms in general education,
family discipline, and the whole life of society.
We do not propose to state Captain Maconochie's principles — which
may now be considered the accepted principles of all comijetent dealers
with the subject of prison discipline — in his own words, nor in the
multifoim division into which they fall in Dr. Wines's essay. We wish
rather to strike at the root-principle of them all, and then to follow the
trunk up to its few chief branches. AVe must keep principles and
methods distinct, and it is a defect of Captain Macojiochie's mind, and
perhaps a necessity of Dr. W^ines's purpose, that this is not done by
either. The principles and the methods are both apparent enough in
the account. But methods are constantly put in place of principles ;
and, indeed. Dr. Wines's title is a little misleading, and would be
amended by calling his essay Maconochie's method of prison discip-
line. For instance, the mark or credit plan, «vhich is his first principle,
is really only a method founded on a principle. The jninciple is this,
that hope is just as essentially and vitally at the root of all true prison
discipline as at the root of all Iree human lifer. Extinguish hope in
human society or in asingle human bosom, and you strike a death-
blow at the will, the conscience, and the understanding. Nothing so
fatal in the action of government or in the political, social, economic
conditions of a peo])le, as the depression or extinction of hope. Gov-
ernments and social organizations may be measured and graded, as
regards their merits, by the degree in which hope exists among the
peoj)lc ;it large. It is the quality Avhich exerts the largest, most con-
stant, most slimuliiting and sustaining inlluence n])on the one universal
humnnity. What light an<l heat are to the vegetalWe world, and what
tli(^ opportunity is to ])lants to rise freely in the wooing air, hoi)e is to
human ull'cctions, faculties, and will. It is the absence of hope, indeed,
which, nioH', hugely tluui anything else, makes criminals; for the im-
mense obstacles which opi)ressive or uncfiual social and ])olitical insti-
tutions create to the ioilowingof honest i)atlis of remunerative industry,
«lrive tlu' irresolute, the self-in<lulgent, ;iiid the less moral to what they
mistfike for the more open and immediately juomising career of crime.
It being established that the old principle adopted from the entrance
ANNUAL REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 323
to Daute's Inferno, " Let all who enter here abandon h6pe," which for
ages had stood over the gate of the prison, is contrary to every law of
human progress and elevation, Captain Maconochie, in effect, put in its
place, "And now abideth hope" for j^risoners and convicts, as well as
for all God's creatures. This is really his fundamental principle, and it
is worthy of its place at the root of his glorious scheme.
But in adopting this principle, of course the old idea of vindictive
or even exemplary punishment, as the first end of penal law and prac-
tice, is at once torn from its supremacy. Of course, also, the immediate
safety of free society being the sole object of criminal law, jails and
prisons were originally built to disarm dangerous members of society of
the power to harm it. Safely lodged there, they were to be punished
vindictively for the injuries they had caused : first, because they deserved
it, and justice was supposed to be thus promoted ; and, second, to warn
and deter others from following their examiile. It was at last discov-
ered— and strange it is that it took so long to find it out — that the main
object sought, the safety of free society, was not effectually secured by
this method; that its cruelty and selfishness aroused a bitter hatred
between the class most exposed to become criminals and society itself;
that it made laws, and courts, and police merely objects of disgust -and
terror ; took away the whole sense of anything friendly, protective, and in
the interest of the exposed classes from the aspect of organized society
and government, and really tended to create the criminals it punished. It
was the crime-creating power of the gallows and of the vindictive punish-
ments of jails and prisons, the dangers involved for society, and the litte
deterring power which fear was discovered to have over brutal natures,
that first drew attention to the fact that, if only the interests of society
were to be considered, the reformation of the convict must be i)laced first
and made the ground-idea in his penal treatment. It was not a mawkish
concern for him, nor chiefly a feeling of moral obligation to reform him,
that first opened the way to the new principle, but a broader view of
what the safety of society itself required. The safety of society de-
manded that law and justice should not present to the people of any
country, as their first impression, that of a power inimical to, or distinct
from, or merely restrictive of, their freedom. It should wear distinct-
ively the aspect of a friend, well-wisher, helper. It should appear as
much the protector, ally, inspirer and encourager of their industry,
order, virtue, and hapi^iness, as the restrainer of their violence and vice.
''For their good always," shoidd be its characteristic expression. Thus
laws, police, courts, prisons, punishments, legislators, parliaments,
presidents, and kings become the recognized friends and helpers of the
people — sources of hope and refuge in trouble.
In this new state of things the criminal classes, offending against
only just and mild restraints and laws universally conceded to be neces-
sary and for the good of all, rapidly lose the sympathy of those nearest
to them in condition and prospects. Then criminals cease to be heroes
and martyrs ; society ceases to be regarded as a tyrant, and penal law
and police to be objects of the hatred and evasion of all the lower half
of the social system. The necessity of reforming the convict for the
safety of society having been adopted as a first principle of prison dis-
cipline, it soon became plain that he could not be reformed except he
were reformed for his own sake also. In short, it became apparent that
his own consent must be obtained, if not to his imprisonment, at least to
his reformation, and that this could only be effected by carrying out
toward men in prison precisely the principles adopted in keeping men out
of prison. If the friendliness of the law be the principle which makes
324 NATIONAL PRISON- EEFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
free men most observant of laws and least disposed to break them, and
so tends to diminish the criminal class, by what other principle shall
those ahead}' become criminals and convicts be cured of criminal pro-
pensities and returned to society with the least danger to its safety ?
Accordingly, the reformation of the prisoner being conceded to be
the best and most necessary service to the public safety, and his refor-
mation* being impossible without his own free agency and consent, the
problem was. Low to secure this consent, and, as a consequence, his co-
operation.
Captain Maconochie cannot have been the first to see that hope is the
only sufficient motive that cau be applied to secure this object ; but he
certainly was the first to feel that absolute confidence in it which was
necessary to make it the cardinal working principle of a method of
prison discipline. He said to himself. What is the fundamental i>rinci-
ple that in free society stimulates the human race to order, industry,
virtue, and piety ? It is hope ; hope of living ; hope of infiueuce and
power; hope of ease in old age; hope of the esteem and love of those
about us; hope of forgiveness ; hope of heaven.
What is the ordinary form which this hope takes in respect of
all social interests ? It is wages or money, that roughly represents the
reward, in view of which hope labors. Take away the hope of this re-
ward from industry, character, talenj:s, ingenuity', patience, persistency,
self-control, and self-denial, and you strike away the crutch from the
lame, and they fall to the ground. Now, how can hope be made in pris-
ons just as operative a princii^le within the narrow limits of its sphere,
as it is in common free life "? Why, only by adopting in spirit the very
idea of wages. It does not so much matter what these wages are, how
large, or in what form ; for among people whose very condition of im-
prisonment reduces them to a low pjane of expectation, a very small
inducement, steadily applied and gradually increased, produces as much
effect as only a very large one does upon people in free life. A crack
admitting the least light to a dungeon would be as precious to a convict
as the whole dawn is to a free man. A penny a day to one who can
otherwise earn nothing would be as influential as a shilling to those who
find free occupation.
Set hope at work, and keep it at work, upon ever so low a grade ;
if it is working steadily and habitually, you have got your principle
of motion and your fact of motion, and you can now direct the vessel
because she is under way, whereas you could do nothing to guide her
Avhile she stood still. Captain Maconochie's method of setting this
principle universally at work at the least cost to the state and the
greatest good to the convict, which is also the greatest good of the na-
tion, was to establish for prisoners a system of marhs, each of which
represented a value, say of one ]»enny. The convict, instead of being
c(>n(l« inncd to a certain and llxed number of years of imi)risomnent,
was to li(^ (;oiMletnn(!<l to remain in ]>ris()n until he had earned and had
put to liis credit a certain niimher of oiKirks — say 1,000, U,0***N •'"^^^'•^^N or
10,(100, jiceordiiig to iiiseriine; but it is to be iu)ted that only the sur-
phiH of niaii<s, ;itter certain material de(hu'ti<uis, could go toward his
liberation. 1'lie. marks in (Japtain Maeoiiocliie's system had a money
value; and the prisoner was lirst to pay, in that eancncy, for his food,
clothing, bed, schooling, «Sic.; and it was the suipbis earned by him that
alone c<iunted towjiid his release. This made the prison an image
of real lite, and bron};ht, into play, and enlisted on the side of reforma-
tion, all the motives which act oil men in free society as stimulants to
industiy, oKler, and good morals. His system goes still further, and
ANNUAL REPORT OF EXECUTIVP: COMMITTEE. 325
allows the prisoner, if he so elect, to remain after he has become en-
titled to his freedom, and earn marks the same as before. In that case
the snrplns of marks, after the payment above specified, have a real money
value, and are paid to him in hard cash whenever he takes his depart-
ure from the prison.
Every one of his prison duties — good conduct, industry in labor, docil-
ity at school — could each day earn for him, let us say, at its maximum,
three marks for each department, or nine in all. It is easily seen how
he might lengthen out his imprisonment by disobedience, sloth, and in-
docility ; how shorten it by good conduct, industry, and aptness at learn-
ing ; and what a steady pressure hope would exercise upon him under
such a system. But this mark system had other advantages. The dis-
cipline of the prison was arranged, and this is especially the case as ap-
plied in the Crofton system, so as to graduate the severity of the con-
vict's condition according to his marks. First, for the opportunity of
tastingthe bitterness of his crime and retlecting uponhis past folly, he was
solitarily confined and put on a very low diet, it might be, for six months
at its maximum and four at its minimum, and there was always before
him the hope of shortening this fearful solitude and low fare by quie-
tude, by observance of all prison rules, by docility to the chaplain and
keeper. Then came labor out of his cell, a great relief; but at first
labor only of the most distasteful or arduous kind, "with a slightly im-
proved diet, in which second stage the j)risoner by good conduct, indus-
try, and docility, could shorten also his term in this lowest of the im-
proved stages by a few weeks or months, and then be promoted into a
better class, whose privileges were slightly raised, by less supervision,
more variety, better food ; and this again, if faithfully used, gave place
to a still freer prison life, with greater advantages and more attrac-
tions. Thus hope was always beckoning the convict on, supplying him
with inducements to do his best, and giving him, as nearly as his con-
dition allowed, the motives that stimulate free citizens to toil, decency,
and self-improvement.
What branches this main principle divided into and gave support to,
we shall now consider.
The admission of the fundamental jirinciple of hope into prison-
life, on the score of its being the chief inspiration of free or ordinary
life, instantly suggests that the fundamental fact in dealing with all
human beings is, that they partake a common human nature, and,
^^ mutatis mutanclis^^'' that the same essential motives, rules, laws, con-
ditions under which they flourish, in one set of circumstances, are
applicable to all. The essential conditions of growth, j^rogress, refor-
mation, are not changed by the most diverse circumstances. The
wildest tribe of Indians falls under the laws of human nature as well
as the most cultivated nations of the Saxon race; and progress, order,
safety, industry, self-respect depend in both upon the same principles.
It is not in essence, but simply iu form, that the principles of action are
changed. A prison is not so unlike the world outside its walls that
the presence of men and women there do not make it more similar to
free society in its wants and conditions of usefulness than its restraints
and isolation make it ditferent from such society. The world, under
Divine Providence, is, iu some sort, a prison ; and the prison is, in some
sort, a world. There is confinement, restraint, bondage in the free
world ; and there is freedom, opportunity, variety in the closest prison.
You cannot free the most fortunate and unrestrained citizen from
many restrictive rules and circumstances, and you cannot rob the
chained convict of his freedom of thought and his excursions of
326 NATIONAL PRISON EEFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
feeling and fancy. Indeed, freedom, in proportion to its political
completeness, lias its moral restrictions and its self-restraints intensified.
Under the highest civilization, man, in becoming a law to himself, is
attended by the most vigilant of police officers and the most implacable
of task masters. There is no prison so impassible as that with which the
Obligations of dnty surround the tender conscience, or the laws of rea-
l^on the active intelligence, or the requirements of the affections the
largest and most liberal heart. Those who fancy that free society, in
proportion to its freedom, encourages or admits license, caprice, self-
will, mistake the nature of the most operative restraints in the human
soul. In the freest society, education, enlightenment, cultivated sensi-
bility, conscientiousness, aspiration, piety, not only take the place of
police supervision and criminal law, but they do their work a thousand
times more rigidly and effectively.
But taking free society in its present average state, no mistake is
wilder and more betraying than that which supposes its usual restraints
and penalties to be light and inoperative. The restraints it imposes,
the penalties it exacts, the burdens it lays on the backs of its children,
are infinitely greater, more general, and more constant than statutory
law can inflict. Burke says: "The laws reach but a very little way.
Constitute government how you please, infinitely the greater part of it
must depend on the exercise of the powers which are left at large, to the
prudence and uprightness of ministers of state." And we may add all arti-
ficial restraints and contrivances, social or political, fall immeasurably
short in their efficiency of those natural, self-enforcing penalties, re-
straints, and incitements which come from the very constitution of our
nature and the world we live in. What motive could take the place of
hunger, sympathy, paternal instinct, the love of power, the dread of
pain, the fear of death, the hope of heaven ? What device could
fulfill the gnardian-angelship of natural modesty and divine shame"?
What restrain like the natural sense of justice, the natural desire for the
good opinion of others, and the natural dread of consequences "? Oar
constitution, the laws of our physical, intellectual, moral, social nature
are the tremendous barriers which our Maker has opposed to license and
disobedience. We are in prison to them — a prison we may break, but
never without penalty. They set a prison guard about us more vigilant
and with more fatal weapons than can surround a jail full of murderers.
The criminal laws of man, few, loose, inapt, bungling, uncertain, easily
evaded, are directed mainly to the restraint of exceptionally low and vul-
gar natures; to the prevention of the evils that are least common, and
which furnish no temptation to average humanity. But the laws of
nature and the self-develo])ing and self-acting laws of human society, are
absolute in their strength and efficacy. They provoke little opposition
and no sense of injustice. They are impartial and they are sleepless.
But in the severity, constancy, and even ])cnal character of those laws,
we discover how it is (lod that governs the world.
If we, would imjnove our laws, our schools, our homos, ourselves, we
must follow (l()(i\s method; leave natural luinciplcs undisturbed, fall
back on the, essential motive powers ; keej) hojx', always at work, and
liing every nieinl)er of society to tiie utmost extent ]>ossibIe, consistent
with safety to tiie rest, ui)oii an «'uliglitened sense of his own interest,
on the Hiwanls tiiat attend and follow obedieiu;e to justice, truth, and
duty, and the stiiuubis that i)r<)cee<ls from that hope which perfectly
equal laws, political and ])ersonal freedom, and an encouraging faith
in God's goodness and in the benignity of religion, do so much to pro-
mote.
ANNUAL EEPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 327
The most constant of the la^s of Providence, in free society, is the
necessity of labor; and it is the most benignant and most educational
and disciplinary of all human necessities. Whatever theory of its origin
we may adopt, we have no conception of any possible growth of human-
ity separated from the use and working of its faculties, and we have no
experience of any adequate use of those faculties except under the
steady spur of necessity. Labor, which alone regulates the restless
love of liberty, the unciviliziug change of place, the native indolence of
man in most climates, is provided for by the constant pressure of hun-
ger— a want which is ou\y greater than that of clothing — which is itself
perhaps the more directly civilizing necessity, as it is less sensual than
the want of food. All the other Mants of society are modifications,
developments, and refinements of these, shelter being only another sort
of clothing, and architecture another form of shelter. The sense of
property and its rights, and the public opinion which guards them
better than law, are natural outgrowths of the value which labor j)uts
upon its own conscious pains. But labor is animated not only by neces-
sity, but by the discoveTy of its rewards, and the cumulative and ever-
increasing preciousness of its results, as more of the powers of humanity
and especially its higher faculties are mingled with it. There is no essen-
tial difference between the pains of thinking and the strain of the muscles ;
between work, whether considered as mental or physical. Both are
induced and sustained by the same essential stimulus. As human nature
refines its wants, the motive changes its form, but not its spirit, accord-
ingly. The hunger for luxury may become as eager as that for food ; the
thirst for influence, fame, virtue, excellence, as imperative as that for
shelter. Man's nature cannot be developed without its wants becoming
ever more varied and more urgent, but the principle is always the same.
What we want, we must labor to get ; and if is only by labor that we
can make even our gratifications satisfying. Thus protectors may
furnish food, but what but labor in some form can furnish appetite?
You may supply the indolent with books, but what but his own labori-
ous self-cultivation can supply the skill to read, the taste to enjoy, the
mental discipline to understand them? You may surround a prince
with statues and pictures, but can anything short of the laborious cul-
tivation of his knowledge and taste give him the power to enjoy them?
Wealth, inherited, has few of the satisfactions of wealth created. Posi-
tion, born-to, has none of the charms of position won. Plenty bestowed
has none of the sweetness of plenty earned. It is impossible, in short,
by any circumstances to overcome the necessity of developing, by labor,
those feelings, tastes, habits, that conditio'n of the man himself which
is the other and more important factor in the felicitating result which
is aimed at. This would be more universally conceded if labor were not
so commonly regarded purely in its lower, more common, and more ex-
ternal forms.
But while man, in free society, has a providential necessity for labor,
which can never be set aside or outwitted without penalties, he has also
an instinct for freedom, a dread of labor, a desire to change its form,
to escape its outward signs, and to get above its visible necessities.
Those who lack this feeling become drudges or drones. Those who
have it in excess impress the labor of others and become tyrants by
force of will, genius, or strength. Make labor a double necessity, first
of hunger and then of artificial compulsion, and you make serfs and
slaves. Enact unjust laws, or perpetuate by la^ the injustice, greed,
and ambition of earlier society — allow the land to pass into few hands-
continue a feudal state of things — and you degrade the bulk of any na-
328 NATIONAL TRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 167:5.
tiou into mere day-laborers, whose aspirations and hopes are limited to
their daily bread." But just in proportion as political institutions are
equal and just, you offer to all men under their bland influence the
highest balance of a general necessity for hibor, with the greatest in-
ducement to the cultivation and use of their best faculties, that their
labor may be refined and rewarded in higher ways, according as their
powers and aptitudes may allow. But let none tbink that Providence
ceases to exact the strictest payments for its gifts in the shape of toil,
self-control, and the highest and most painful self-culture, irom those
who seem to escape most completely from the ordinary necessities of
humanity. Genius is a fearful taskmaster. Power is a prodigious
worker. Elevation is often solitary confinement, and the vaster the
sway and the mightier the forces controlled, the stiffer the hands that
hold the reins and the more weary and worn the charioteer. In a word,
labor as a necessity — now physical, now mental— permanently describes
human condition in free society ; and freedom in the discharge of this
necessity is merely the change of the necessity from the belly to the
will. The more free you can make this labor, by taking it off the back
and putting it upon the brain — the more you can bring its compulsion
out of the heart, conscience, taste, intellect, and the less out of the
stomach — the more do you make it favorable to human dignity and aspi-
ration. Political freedom, free trade, common-school education, reli-
gious bearing, immortal hopes, equal laws, protection of property and
rights, all aid in, and are measured off by, this result. Men must work
with hand, or head, or heart. Get their free consent to this work by
making them feel its blessedness as a law of Providence, and not merely
a blunt necessity of fortuitous circumstances, a misfortune of their lot;
let them see that so they are built up and dignified, and so society is
exalted, that the God who made them is their friend as well as their
prison keeper and governor, and that all things in His providence and
our nature Mork together for good, if we observe His statutes and laws
written in that nature and our lot, and you achieve the highest possible
results of social existence, as well as secure the largest returns of indi-
vidual hai)piness and excellency.
It is these principles which the new science of prison discipline, based
on Maconochie's method, is seeking to apply to the treatment and eleva-
tion of prisoners. Hope being the root of the jninciple, labor and free-
dom are its two chief branches. The ])risoiier must be kei)t at labor,
because labor is the great burden and nei-essity of all free life, and its
chief educating opi)ortunity. Solitary confinement, deprivation of occu-
pation, beyond a very limited i)eriod, in the way of punishment, at the
outset of the convict's imi)risonment, are found Avhoily lacking in any
power to reiujvate and refoi m. They do afford an opportunity for reflec-
tion, and they humble and break down tlie prisoner's false pride and
sense of jiower to defy the law. But the very feelings thus usefully
started arc jjaialyzed, if not put to a speedy use; and a dungeon or cell
becomes, after a while, a i)lace of sleej), apathy, idle thoughts, or pruri-
ent fancies. JJcsides, tlie i»risoner who is led at the i)ublic cost, usually
quite as abundantly or more so tiian jx'oph' at liberty in his own social
chiss are f('<l by tiii'ir lal)or, olten feels that he is compelling society to
suj)p()rt him, and siiceessfiilly evjuling tlie law that, in the sweat of his
brow, lie shall e;irn his bread. Keep him for years in this idleness, and
lie goes outofjiiil iitlei'ly ruined as a laboicr, and often sjx'edily returns
to prisoji, sometimes by an act [)iirpose!y (sommittcd to secure that end.
A life of full fed idleness in i)rison is sweeter to degraded natures than
a life of ill paid and ill-fed labor out of it. As soon, therefore, as the
ANNUAL REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. oZd
couvict has passed through his short season of solitary confinement, he
Is put to hard labor, on poor diet; but, Avith the feeling that he is now
earning his own bread, he returns in part to the ordinary wholesome
state of free life. But his labor is soon made less bitter, if it is not
made sweet, by the aunouncement that he can slightly improve his fare
by diligence, co-operation, quiet behavior, and the caieful observance of
all prison rules. A few months of the least attractive form of labor, if
the prisoner earns the privilege by good conduct, are rewarded by a
choice of occupations. lie is put to the trade for which he has an apti-
tude or preference. Xow, again, his diet is bettered.
By degrees the social nature, which is so important apart of man, and so
educating and invigorating, is allowed to take its part in his elevation.
The prisoners are separated into small squads, and permitted to carry
on their work together, to help each other, and finally even to live to-
gether in huts or cabins, always, of course, under necessary restrictions
and supervision, but with a steady eye to imitating, as far as possible,
the workings of free society, accustoming them to social influence and
to membership one of another. As much room as is compatible with
security and their safe-keeping is given to their free will. They are con-
tinually encouraged to work from inward motives, from a sense of ben-
efit to themselves, from hope of reward, and from a consciousness that
both their labor and their indulgences are regulated with an eye to
their personal reformation and their preparation for future self-support
in the ways of order and virtue.
But what has become of punishment under this hopeful system of
reformation ? Is not the sense of confinement, the necessar^^ associa-
tion with convicts, the brand of the public prison, isolation from
the world, and the suspension of the freedom to go and come, and
do and not do, which belong to the innocent, punishment enough ?
But that is not the true answer; the severity of punishment is in
no degree to be measured by its external amount or its cruelty of
form, but by the degree in which it is felt. If you kill sensibility you
destroy the power of suffering. You may whip a prisoner till he ceases
to feel the blows. You may extinguish the sense of freedom until the prison
ceases to be an object of horror or offense. You may dull the conscience
until no appeal starts a responsive pang. You may accustom man
to hardship until hardship ceases to have any sense of trial connected
with it. The true method of making punishment elective is to make
the object of it sensitive to its stroke. You must not toughen either the
outer cuticle or the true skin of the heart, if j^ou expect your blow upon
either to tell. A gentleman feels a slight imputation on his honor more
than a ruffian does a stab. A breath of calumny afflicts an innocent
and modest woman more than a public trial does a lewd sister. Even
then, if i)unishment is to be made dreadful, it is only within the bound-
aries of two principles that it can keep its efficacy. You must not ex-
tinguish or lessen sensibility by the hardening process of frequent, per-
sistent, and cruel penalties. To make a soldier familiar with the lash is
to destroy its dread. To make a ])risoner familia r with solitude, with
hunger, with stolid neglect, with dull routine, is to destroy or annul
their penal influence, their deterring power, their chastening or their
moral influence.
All punishments the vrorlcT can render
Serve only to provoke th' offender ;
The will gains strength from treatment horrid,
As hides grow harder when they are curried.
— TrumhulVs McF'mgal.
330 NATIONAL PRISON EEFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
Punishment is not lessened in its power by external mildness, by care-
ful graduation, by considerate and infrequent application. Even suffer-*^
ing, which it must be recollected is at last a personal feeliug, is not mor-
ally diminished by any process which increases sensibility faster than it
diminishes violence. The probability is that it is the best and most im-
proving prisoners, those who have the most privileges aud the nearest
approach to free life, who feel their sufferings and their punishment most
acutely. For they still have the love of liberty, the elements of self-
respect, and the consciousness of power to be good citizens tugging at
their heart-strings. They have the reproaches of conscience, the mem-
ory of an innocence they have lost, the longing for an opportunity to try
their good resolutions, all intensified by the shame of their situation.
Brutal, hardened, self-abandoned men, accustomed to daily severity,
hopeless, aud without interest in themselves or their future, are not
great sufferers ; they are fast becoming insensible stocks and stones.
It is a radical error, then, to assume that making more of the reform-
atory aim makes less of the penal. That is really more when put ia the
second place, than it could be if left in the first. Do you suppose that a
prisoner of average sensibility feels most a blow, or a word of reproof
and expostulation, of kindness and sympathy ! Many whom stripes
cannot touch are deeply moved to suffering by a sympathy new to their
hearts, which opens the closed flood-gates of remorse.
The new processes of milder and more reformatory methods are
not designed to make the prisoner dread the jail less or feel more
comfortable there, nor do they have that effect. They are designed
to bring the more sensitive parts of his nature under the influ-
ence of punishment, and to make that punishment elevating and
reformatory', instead of being merely degrading aud brutaliziug. You
may ferule a boy until his hands are too tough to suffer, yet he has sen-
sibility still left somewhere on his skin. You may apply severe punish-
ments only in one way, and with so much routine aud narrowness of
application that they lose all responsiveness from the nature they aim to
reach. The more of the man you can keep open and exposed, the more
of thought, feeling, conscience, affection, hope, you bring under your
penal a])plication, the larger and more effective is your weapon ; there-
fore, whatever free-Mill, whatever freedom of action, whatever educa-
tion, whatever moral infiuence, whatever affection, whatever else tends
to increase the area and sensibility of the criminal's humanity, ofl'er you
new chances of punishment with new chances of reformation.
It is with the convict under cruel, or brutal, or persistent penalties
as it is with society under oppressive and intrusive or viiulictive laws.
To make shoj)-lifting a hanging offense does not tend to diminish crimes
of violence. "As well be hung for a sliccp as a lamb," says the thief;
one criim; is as bad as another. Thus moral distinctions are blurred,
the wis<l()m and justice of society are arraigned, and the lower portion
of the woiid becomes insensible to tlie nuu-al considerations most potent
over the Ix-ginnings of vice and crimen Jf you make vexatious and in-
trusiv(^ tariff laws, and adix; unreasonable <luties, you harden the
mcrcanlih', conscience, and convert even the belter class of women into
])(!tty smnggleiH. J''ew laws, mild laws, impartial laws make sensitive
citi/Citis, enlist the good will of the public, favor their own certain en-
forcement, and bring in(,o play those privat<i forces of personal self-con-
trol and (conscientiousness which are the chief au<l final hope of order
and Justice,
Trisoners are men ; criiniMals ;ire men ; jails are in and a part of tlie
Hocial system; and the identical prinitijdes, and as near an approach as
ANNUAL REPORT ON PRISON DISCIPLINE. 331
possible to the methods of ordinary life, are both more penal and more
reformatory than any others. It is found that the rules of sick-rooms
in private homes are the best rules for public hospitals ; of course they
cannot there be carried out in perfection, but they must be reached for-
ward to with all pains. So the insane are now governed as nearly as
possible by reason, and as much as possible like the sane. The old plan
was to forget that insanity is a disease of sanity, just as the old medi-
cal practice forgot that bodily disease was the disturbance of forces
which in equilibrium we call health, and that the laws of health, and
not the laws of disease, are the great foundation of true therapeutics.
Until crime is regarded as a disease of society, that must be cured on
social principles, and in accordance with social laws; until criminals are
considered as belonging to the humau species, and still mainly to be
governed and cured by universal human motives and human sensibilities,
we shall not have reached the very key to the whole problem.
For the committee :
H. W. BELLOWS.
3. REPORT OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON PRISON DISCIPLINE.
Prison discipline, as a subject of inquiry by this committee, includes
the exposed classes iu society and the criminals. The former are the
friendless poor, the uneducated, the immigrant population, and those
whp are born into such surroundings as drunkenness, license, fraud,
&c., or who unfortunately inherit, in their constitutions, imbecility,
vicious impulses, or nervous disease. The latter are those who, having
committed crime, are either in prison or at large. The best informa-
tion to be had warrants the estimate of 40,000 as the number of actually
imprisoned criminals in the United States at a given time. There are no
reliable data on which to found a statement of the percentage of crim-
inals who evade commitment to prison. But there is no doubt that a
large jiroportign do. If it were supposable that the objective causes of
criminal acts, and the causes that tend to repress crime and contribute to
the reformation of criminals, were about evenly balanced, we might hope
that this proportion, whatever it be, comprised the criminals of the
country, a fact sufficiently alarming, whether viewed in its financial
relations or as a source of danger to life and property. But, doubtless,
the influence of the criminals at large upon their progeny, upon their
associates, and upon society in various ways, is in excess of the govern-
mental and moral means for repression, and no general reformatory
results are reached with those who are imprisoned ; and since about one-
third of these latter are annually released from j)rison, the prison popu-
lation itself becomes a center of crime-production.
A numerical estimate of the classes especially exposed to commit
crime can scarcely be made with sufficient accuracy to give it much
value ; and since this report proposes to treat chiefly of the criminals
themselves, it will not be attempted. It is safe to affirm, however, that
there is a migratory population, without accumulated meaus and with
few social ties, who earn irregularly and spend prodigally; that. there
are others who are penniless and improvident, though having a fixed
domicile; and that there is a large class who, from one cause or another,
depend on public or private charity. There are others still, whose
occupation and associations serve to develop the baser passions at the
sacrifice of the benevolent affections and moral sentiments, though pos-
sessed of sufficient pecuniary resources. These several classes consti-
tute, altogether, an uneducated mass of beings, with some virtues doubt-
332 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF ]S7:L
less, but nevertheless specially exposed to temptations. So there are
hundreds of thousands fresh from foreign countries, possessing but
imperfect knowledge of our language, our laws, and our social customs,
strangers in a strange laud, the prey of political partisans and unprin-
cipled sharpers, who are crowded into the cities or pushed out upon the
frontiers of civilization, and wholly unaccustomed to the freedom which
they enjoy here, many of whom are likely to infringe upon the rights of
property and person, and to offend against the peace and order of
society. And also, beyond question, there is a large class, possessing
the unfortunate inheritance of deficient mental and moral faculties,
with ungovernable auiinal instincts or diseased nervous conditions,
rendering their proper behavior, in mixed society, a practical impossi-
bility, without the restraints of the law.
We have, then, as the subject of our inquiries — 1. Some 40,000 crim-
inals actually in custody; 2. An nnknowu quantity of the same class
abroad in the coniinunity ; and, 3. An indefinitely large population pecu-
liarly exposed to crimes.
Prison discipline, in the broad sense, has to do with the exposed
classes by way of introducing and conducting special preventive agen-
cies, and in this work we seem to be limited at present to investigation
and recommendation, for the people are so jealous of any apparent in-
fringement of individual rights that they are impatient of the restraints
and obligations necessary to this end. But good progress has been
made of late through the enactment of compulsory education and strin-
gent liquor-laws in some States, and, though these laws are very imper-
fectl.y enforced, they show a degree of attention to j)revention and an
improved sentiment which are very encouraging.
The State of Michigan follows Massachusetts in the next practical
measure, and promises to improve upon the Munson establishment in
the last named State. There is now in progress of construction by
Michigan, at Coldwater, a State public school, embodying the main fea-
tures of both the family and the congregate ideas, as separately applied
throughout the country in its reform schools or houses of refuge. The
establishment will comprise ten cottages for families of thirty each,
Mith suitable buildings for meals, for school, and for employment, the
whole to be attractive in architecture and general arrangement ; and it
is designed by the projectors to institute the very best school facilities
and far better social surroundings for the scholars than are generally
provided for the wards of a State. In short, the design is to qualify the
inmates for the higlier occupations and social walks, and to see that
they are duly introduced into them on leaving the school. The act
creating this institution provides that " there shall be received as pupils
in such school those children that are over four and undersixteen years
of age, that are in suitable condition of body and mind to iTceive in-
struction, who are neglected and dependent, esi)ecially those who are
now maintained in the county ])0{)r-h()us('s, those who liave been aban-
doned by tlicir parents, or are ori)hans, or whose parents have been con-
\icted of cjiiiic." Doubtless further legislation will be had this year,
eidar^iirig tlic scoiic of tliis S(;liool so as to embrace all the really neg-
l(!ct(Ml and dcpciidciit (Jiildrcn of the State. Jt is ho]ied that the best
('xpc(;t;it ions for this new institution maybe moi(^ tlian realized, and
that other Stales will establish similar oiu'S. ft is unnecessary to occupy
sjjace in this report in calling attention to the numenHis and various
]>rivato charitu'S suggestcMl, established, and sustaiiu'd by the jn'actical
('hristian sentirniuit of the tiiruvs. Yet wo may be indulged in otllering
our congratulations at the humanitarian and religious activities indi-
ANNUAL KEPOET ON PEISON DISCIPLINE. 333
cated by these and other means to improve the classes of society under
consideration. It is hoped also that the influence of this association may
be applied to facilitate a similar tendency in the spirit of civil legislation.
When the adv^ocacy and support of the various schemes and measures
presented to the Federal and State legislatures are conditioned upon their
value to the moredefenselessanddeticieut classof thepopulation, instead
of the more influential and better-endowed portions, the prosperity of the
whole will be best promoted, and much be accomplished toward the
more etiectual prevention of crime.
The actual relation between criminals in conlinement and the crime
class in society, and the i^roper oflice of government toward each, are
questions that should engage the attention of the association at once,
for they must underlie all plans for practical reforms. It is coming to
be understood that there is a marked difference between the exposed
class and the criminal class — that an individual of vicious impulse who
is restrained by his own will or saved from the overt act of crime by his
favorable social surroundings is a better citizen than he is when the
Eubicon of crime is passed. There is an added impulse given by the
overt act, the hold of restraint is weakened, and, as a rule, the chances
of moral reformation are greatly diminished. It is this knowledge that
is producing the conviction in many thoughtful minds that criminals
(and by criminals are meant all those who commit offenses justifying
their public punishment) should remain under governmental guardian-
ship so long as is required either for the protection of society or to aid
the criminal in his efforts to reform by the moral force of his legal lia-
bilities and relations.
The criminals abroad in society probabl.y supply the prison popula-
tion to a much larger extent than is generally supposed. Prisoners who
are received for the first time at the State prisons for felonious crime,
have in many cases been previously imprisoned in jails, municipal prisons,
or houses of refuge, for lesser offenses. And the prisoners of the latter
class are notoriously repeaters, having had in some cases the experience
of imprisonment in the prisons of several States or cities.
It is a popular fallacy that virtuous citizens often suddenly fall into
crime and are committed to prison. Such instances may possibly exist,
but they form the exception and not the rule. When persons have
fallen into crime, having come down from virtuous and respectable
heights of character and social position, it has been by an easy descend-
ing grade of slight deflections at first, then moral delinquencies of the
milder type, until, finally, and often from the accumulated pressure of
inward impulse and outward distress, actual crime is committed. But
they who have actunUy fallen are but a tithe of the criminal population.
The mass are hor7i into it, or are trained for it, with or without their
own consent. The criminal class is an abnormal social growth.
After suitable measures to repress this growth, the first care should be
for the discharged criminals. The pittance bestowed on their release from
prison and the scanty wardrobe supplied even when accompanied with the
" good advice" of the warden and the " God bless you" of the chaplain,
are of little worth to the criminal, and much less to society, as a guar-
antee of his future right conduct 5 and, as a rule, no guarantee whatever
is furnished by the fact of his imprisonment uiuler the best known ex-
isting i^rison system in this country. So that society is in the plight
(which would be ridiculous if it were not too sad) of temporarily restrain-
ing dangerous persons, then of still further degrading them by peniten-
tiary treatment, and, finally, of turning them loose again, to j)ly their evil
calling, without the least supervisory control.
334 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
Protection from discharged prisoners and the requisite aids for reforma-
tion must come from benevolent societies, relying upon the prisoner's
voluntary acceptance of the proifered help and his permanent choice of
an upright and virtuous life, or from governmental guardianship and con-
trol. Private benevolence can never meet the want, for it is in its
nature fitful, is insufficient in its means, and cannot command the
beneficiary class. As a rule, they who most need the restraints and
helps to be derived from this source are the last to choose it; their
choice is rather indolence, excesses, and such associations as belong
thereto. For the few reformed prisoners, and for the imbecile of body
or mind, these efforts are of great value ; but for the headstrong, heed-
less, hardened crowd who, having been released from prisons, are now
abroad in the community, some authoritative supervisory control must
be had, and is, indeed, the best thing for both. This surely can be had,
for, however jealously we may guard the individual rights of the
humblest citizen who keeps himself within the limits of the law, when
he becomes a criminal, or commits offenses requiring, in the judgment
of competent courts, his personal restraint, then he cannot reasonably
complain if restraint is continued to such an extent, and so long as may
be necessary to protect society from his depredations, and to protect him-
self from himself. Public sentiment on this subject is somewhat divided.
There are those who object to laws conferring governmental control
of criminals after they are released from prison, on the ground that — (1)
Such control cannot be accomplished. (2) That it would create a crime
class, generally known to be such. (3) That the uutrammeled free action
of the mind is necessary to self improvement and reformation: therefore
this control would tend to defeat its own object. Others believe that
the apparent difficulty of operating such laws may be overcome by the
ingenious mechanism of the law, and by experience in administering it.
They believe that the crime class is created already, and that the effect
of the law will only be to define and reveal it, which possesses for
society, certainly, as many advantages as disadvantages.
Unrestrained action, in opposition to or disregard of just obligation,
is not liberty but license. The peace and welfare of society can only
comport with absolute individual freedom, when the impulses are pure,
the reason fairly developed, the moral sense rightly cultivated, and the
whole properly balanced. Not one of us but lives under somewhat of
restraint : none can safely give rein to all the impulses of his nature.
The amount of restraint should, and in God's moral government actually
does, depend ui)on the moral quality of the mind acted ui)on. Eightly
consiilered, sin restricts our liberty ; so untaught and rebellious citizens
sliould be hemnuMl in by human hiws, and allowed onl^" a limited range
lor tlio exercise of free choice.
it wouhl seem to be a self-evident proposition that the unreformed
criminals in the community can gain nothing by tlie absence of restraints,
l)Ut Would gain iiiucli that wonhl be of real, thougli unwelcome value to
them, by HU(!li continued supcrvisoiy control as is here suggested. It
is liardly necessary to add that projxM' govcrnmfMital supervision of dis-
charged eiJMiinals ean be liad only b^' continuing ind(^linitely somewhat
of tlie conti'oj conferred l>y the courts at the time of convicttion. Once
restrained of liberty for violating the laws, governmental control should
nev«^r ]>(-, fiilli/ relin(|uislied until the prisoner has at least the following
i|uali(ications for citizenship: (1) JI(^ should be able to read, write, and
ci[)her, sullicienlly at least to keej) account of his receii)ts and exi)endi-
lures, and the mind should be so niolde«l as to make liis judgment in
cotnTiion allairs reasonably tiiie. (U) lli^ should ]M)ssess within himself
ANNUAL REPORT ON PRISON DISCIPLINE. 335
the experience and skill necessary to earn an honest living, or be taken
in charo^e by others who are able and willing to provide for him, to
which they shotild be pledged by a bond. (3) Satisfactory evidence
shonld appear, not only that the prisoner has sufficient education and
intelligence to care for himself, and possesses the ability to earn his
living, or has friends to provide for him in respectability, but that there
is a reasonable probability that he will use his faculties and resources
aright ; in other words, that there have been effected in his mind such
changes, and these actually and practically tested, as will afford a guar-
antee of reasonably right choices in the presence of different motives.
Of course this involves changes in the prison system, but it involves
much more than this. There are required training or testing estab-
lishments; establishments somewhat technical in their character, spe-
cially adapted to their peculiar work, in connection with which probation-
ary periods of enlarged liberty should be allowed. They should embody
the following principles, at least: (1) While legal control is retained,
there must be such relaxation of present personal restraint that the pris-
oner is consciously free, under the play of such motives as ordinarily
influence individuals in society. Of course, failure to choose and act
right within his sphere would be evidence of unpreparedness for return
to society. (2) The aim should be to fit each individual for the highest
social condition possible for him, and to this end the school or reform-
atory must embrace instruction in employments, from the humblest me-
chanic art or agricultural pursuit, to the higher mechanical employments
and the fine arts; this upon the principle that the weak and wayward
most need the support of good social surroundings, which are most
likely to be found among those engaged in the higher employments.
(3) A high standard of honor should pervade these establishments,
and constitute the disciplinary regime. One who cannot distinguish
what is honorable from what is dishonorable and mean, or who, thus
distinguishing, has not self-control enough to restrain himself, should
be deemed unfit for the school or reformatory, and, after due delibera-
tion, should be banished to a lower grade of the series. Such a sense
of honor involves moral integrity and a spirit of self-sacrifice, two qual-
ities of character which, when dominant in the mind, are good guarantees
of right citizenship. (4) The principle of religion must surely be im-
planted here — not any denominational religious system, but sincere
recognition and reverent love and worship of Almighty God.
Protection for society from discharged prisoners through such estab-
lishments as we have described, involves, of course, the preparation of
prisoners for such a graduation while they are confined in the other
prisons of the state. In other words, a reformed prison system, substan-
tially as described in the Declaration of Principles of the iSTational Prison
Congress of 1870 and of the International Congress of 1872 ; a system
in which the object of vindictive punishment is left out; a system in
which indulgence for its own sake is left out ; in short, a system, which
neither relies for the suppression of crimes upon the repression of crim-
inals, nor mainly upon their persuasion, but rather upon their restraint,
cultivation, and cure.
That the present wretched apology for a prison system in our country
may, through proper effort, be supplanted by a truer ideal, which shali
accomplish these results, the committee have no doubt. That, in the
progress of civilization, this will he done, the committee fervently hope.
It is believed that this association ought at once to ascertain in which
of the several States the true ideal of a prison system may best be
planted, and that our influence should be brought to bear^to accom-
336 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
plish it. An examiuation of the laws and institutions of such State
shouhl bo had, and the necessary changes therein carefully noted ; indeed
the whole work of the proposed experiment, and the successive steps
leading to it, should be by us mapped out in detail, so that it would only
remain for the State authorities to adopt or reject. A carefully selected
committee of citizens of such State warmly enlisted in carrying it out,
and the expected co-operation of the State authorities, if realized, would
be likely to secure the trial, when we could present to other States,
and the world, a practical demonstration of the wisdom of the plans and
principles we hold, but unfortunately now content ourselves with only
proclaiming over and over again in our various public documents.
For the committee:
Z. E. BROCKWAY.
4. REPORT OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON DISCHARGED PRISONERS.
The committee on discharged prisoners can add but little to the infor-
mation contained in the report made to the association by the commit-
tee of last year, which presented, as far as it was known, what organized
eftbrt had been made in the various States of our Union to improve the
condition of this class of persons.
It is sad to look over our vast country and see how utterly inade-
quate are the means put forth for their relief. We are exhorted by the
Apostle, " as we have opportunity', to do good unto all men," (Gal. G : 10 ;)
and it is one of the obvious duties of society, for its own sake and for
th:it of its liberated convicts, to render permanent any beneficial influ-
ences resulting from the discipline of the prison. But on the restoration
to liberty of many thousands of convicts annually, little care is taken,
save in a few favored localities, to give them the hand of Christian
sympathy, to encourage them in good resolutions, and to " set them in a
plain path because of their enemies." (Ps. 27 : 11.)
It is very easy to make general abstract declarations of duty or resolu-
tions of action in the premises. A widely different nnitter is it to decide
wisely what ought to be done in the multiform individual cases as they
arise, and to do it. Whether his term of imprisonment has produced
penitence and resolutions for virtuous living, or whether he is impeni-
tent and prepared with whetted appetite to pursue a course of crime,
the time of the release for each convict comes. Perhaps, a harsh keeper*
who lias fed and worked, restrained and i)unished him, who h;is looked
upon him as one who must be resolutely "kept down," a dangerous
man, incapable; of improvement, now feels that in parting some " good
advice" Irom himsell', as tlie representative of the State, is called for,
and he counsels him to industry, sobriety, and honesty. But such
counsel from such a source gives liim no strength for the stern battle
at once upon Jiiiri. The grave qiu'stions : Where vshall he go "i? What
shall he do? With wliom slmli lie associate'^ It maybe the sadder
inquiry, who will associate with litm'l jiress for immediate answer. He
feels tl'iat he is dcgiaded and disgraced. Shall he seek the friends whom
he has grieved, ]»(Mli;ips wrongecl, or shall he go among strangers'?
Does 5iriy one tliinU that society has no interest iir the solution of these
(luestions'j Is it beneath Ww, notice of the conservators of the public
welf;irc wliat inlliicnces slmll determine the course of a mair, despised
indeed, but yet i»ossessed of powers which at this cr itical moment of his
" Many keeperw, it niuHt l»o Hai»l, are not liaisli, but (^entlo and geatleir.anly, remem-
bering the gol(l<-ii rule in (l(;ilin;i; witli tlmsc under tl;cir care.
ANNUAL EEPORT ON DISCHAEGED PRISONERS. 337
life may be directed either to bless or to curse the community? Tempta-
tions to robbery, arson, murder run through his mind, but a few words
l)rompted by a kind and loving heart, the offering of a prospect of
honorable and useful employment, with a vista of better days temporally
and spiritually, may be the means of turning his feet into the paths of
virtue. By the rescue of such an one from the toils and penalties of
crime and his addition to the ranks of honest industry, society gains by
a relief from his depredations, and also from the apprehension of them,
as well as by the actual benefit of his labors.
Eelief to discharged prisoners, however, requires wise consideration
in the individual cases as tliey occur. It can, perhaps, hardly be accom-
plished by special homes or manufactories, as has sometimes been pro- •
posed. The most hopeful plan appears to be the appointment for each
considerable prison of an ofticer whose duty it shoidd be to make himself
acquainted with the prisoners, especially with those whose confinement
is near to termination, to win their confidence by kindly ministrations
and undissembled interest in their affairs, to learn by delicate inquiry
their history, character, capabilities, and desires, and then by outside
correspondence to secure, if possible, for each departing convict a
comfortable home with employment suited to his needs, to which he can
go at once, without being subjected to the temptations of contaminating
associates. He should be, if necessary, accompanied to his new domi-
cile.
A mere mercenary laborer is not wanted here. The agent may be
a plain man, but he should be possessed of some rare gifts and
grac-es. He must be warm-hearted, generous, and, where it is deserved,
confiding, of quick percei)tion of character, of undoubted truthfulness
and integrity, and of sound practical common sense, making his coun-
sels valued because they are valuable. He should feel an earnest inter-
est in the spiritua.1 and temporal welfare of his wards, and manifest it
by loving watchfulness over their subsequent career, holding them in
the bonds of respectful attachment.
Some of the prisoners' aid societies have, happily for their beneficia-
ries, found such men. Provision for the appointment of one or more
agents should be made by law in every State where it cannot be
effected by voluntary associations, which, with needful aid from the
State, are greatly preferable. To be without some such arrange-
ment seems a folly and a crime, for if society sins by its neglect
of duty, it must suffer the penalty. Wardens have reported of
some discharged prisoners that they have loitered about the i^rison
for hours, utterly at a loss to decide where to go. Some .have been de-
coyed into vile rum-holes and stripped of the few dollars allowed them
on their discharge. Others have been liberated at their own request
before the morning light, that they might escape the seductions of old
associates whom they knew would be lying in wait for them during the
day. Some, refused employment or discharged as soon as their late home
was known, or stung by the averted looks and cutting words of old ac-
quaintance, have become utterly disheartened, and, on temptation, have
broken sincere resolutions of correct life. The value of the counsel and
assistance of a wise and sympathizing agent in such cases need not be
shown. This officer should have an ofiice in the j)rison or contiguous to
it, where, hy jjublic announcement, he could receive applications for
laborers.
It may appear a solecism to say that the care of discharged prisoners
should commence on the day of their incarceration, but as the wished-
for end is their effectual separation from the crimiual classes, it is obvi-
H. Ex. 185- — 22
338 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
ous tliat legislative enactments and tlie discipline of the prison should
be such as to promote and, so far as possible, to secure that object. The
system of marks, and grades, and tests; of religious, moral, and liter-
ary instruction combined with labor ; of conditionally promised commu-
tation and pecuniary reward — these encourage a i)risoner to do right,
stimulate him to overcome his evil propensities, and strengthen him in
habitual good conduct. Many will thus become worthy of the recom-
mendation of the agent, and will justify it on their complete liberation.
Of those who evince no signs of reformation, and who will only return
to society to prey upon it, it may not be out of place to express the con-
viction that they ought not to enter the list of discharged prisoners.
The victim of some terrible accident is not sent to the hospital for a
prescribed time, but until curative treatment restores his bruised body
or shattered limbs. An insane patient is retained in the asylum, not
for so many weeks, but till returning reason fits him for self-control.
In the case of a desperate criminal, a special time-sentence seems equally
inappropriate, and should be changed to one conditioned upon his refor-
mation.
For the committee :
SAMUEL ALLINSON.
III.— PAPERS COMMUNICATED.
1. The CRIMINAL.
By Dr. Prosper Desirine, France.
[Translation.]
The importance of this subject aj^pears from the single tact, eniiuently
rational, that a knowledge of the criminal is an essential guide to aright
treatment of him ; a knowledge of him, not in his acts, which are but
too well known, but in his spirit, in the psychical condition which impels
him to commit crime, and to renew the monstrous act as often as cir-
cumstances permit.
There must be something al)noru)al in the disposition of criminals,
Avhen they yield, with the utnu)st facility, to desires which would excite
the strongest repugnance and horror in a truly moral man. I3oes not
this abnormal state leveal itself in the clearest manner when, contrary
to what poets and moralists have represented, we see the wretch who
has committed crime exhibiting no symptons of remorse, but rather a
disposition to rejx'at the same ciiminal act ? Such is the thought which
hasiuomptcd nie to study, ^\ ith the greatest care, the ])s.vchical comlition
of criminals, or, if you i)lease, the psychology of criminality, in order to
lill a hiatus which, hitherto, has existed in science.
I i)ropose, in this paper, to set forth some of the views suggested by
my j)sycli()l()gi(;al study of (uiminals. These views, exhibited at length
in a work whi('h I have recently published, will be traced here only in
outline. JJut I hope that, however Irielly i)resented, they may engage
others to enter the |):itli which I have opcneil, and to i)ursue it with per-
K(!v<nance; a path which I consider th(^ most ratiouiil juid the most likely
to leafl to a right trciit incnl of those perv<'iled beings who <listurb so(;iety
SO juolbiindly and wilh such i-cgiihirity that both the number and the
species of llH'ir CI inics may I»c (bresecn and predicted with almost uneir-
ABNOEMAL MORAL STATE OF CRIMINALS. 66\)
ing precision. jSTow, Just as in order to the rational treatment of a sick
man, it is necessary to study the organic disease with wbicb he has been
attacked; in the same manner is it essential to know the abnormal
* psychical condition, or, to speak better, the moral disease which produced
the crime; a condition without which, from the study I have made of
criminals, great crimes are never committed in cold blood; for I have
found, without exception, this abnormal psychical condition in all great
criminals.
I have spoken of moral disease. This demands a clear and exact defi-
nition. Let it not be supposed that I look upon the criminal as diseased
in such a sense that, like the insane, he stands in need of medical treat-
ment. If, in certain cases, crime is committed nnder the influence of a
pathological cerebral condition, little apparent to the magistrate, but in
general recognized by the physician versed in medical jurisprudence,
^the ordinary criminal, the criminal who peoples the prisons, is almost
always healthy in body. His mental state does not grow worse, like that
of the insane patient, in the sense of the gradual destruction of all his
faculties. Let us, then, settle this preliminary point, viz, that the crim-
inal is not a patient, and that, in- this respect, he must not be likened to
the insane.
But, although sound in body, the criminal none the less manifests
psychical anomalies of a very grave character. But we must not seek
these anomalies in the intellectual faculties, properly so called; in the
perception, in the memory, and in the facnlty of associating ideas, of
reasoning, that is to say, in the reflective powers. Although many crim-
inals are as scantily endowed with intellectual as with moral faculties,
it is not the lack ot intelligence which is the distinctive character of
these dangerous beings ; for there are among them persons of great,
intelligence, capable of forming ingenious combinations, which are the
product only of strong reflective faculties. The distinctive anomalies
of criminals are found only in the moral faculties, in the instincts
of the soul, out of which spring its desires and proclivities, and which
constitute our principles of action : for it is these which impel us to act
in one direction or in another.
In studying criminals, the flrst thing which strikes us, and which is
obvious to all, is the i)errersity, the criminal thoughts and desires, in-
spired by the evil inclinations and vices inherent in all mankind, but
more emphasized in criminals than in other men. It is the violent pas-
sions— hatred, revenge, jealousy, envy ; it is also other passions which,
without being violent, are no less tenacious in criminals, such as cu-
pidity, the love of pleasure, profound repugnance to a regular life and
to labor, and an inteuvse indolence. These two last-named vices impel
criminals to seek the means of satisfying the material wants of life and
the enjoyments which they crave, not in honest toil, but in readier ways,
which are immoral and hateful — in theft, arson, and murder. These
qualities in criminals are manifest to the eyes of all. But do these ma-
lign passions, these immoral propensities and desires, constitute a really
abnormal psychical state? By no means; and the proof is, that these
evil tendencies, these wicked passions, these perverse and criminal de-
sires, make themselves felt in the soul of the most upright man, without
his ceasing to conduct himself in a virtuous manner, for the reason that
he wages a successful warfare against them. There is no need to en-
large upon this point, which is so well known, that persons engaged in
the study of the criminal, seeing in him only perversity, vicious incli-
nations, immoral desires, have considered him, in a moral point of view,
340 NATIONAL PRISON EEFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
as normally constituted. His moral irregularity, then, is to be looked for
somewhere else.
To understand in what this irregularity consists, let us examine what
passes in the man recognized as normal in his moral constitution, when*
he finds himself in presence of a perverse thought, an immoral desire.
Every one sees it in a moment. The conscience, that is to say, the
right instincts of the soul, the moral faculties, three words which mean
the same thing; the conscience, I say, is roused ; the moral sentiments,
opposed to the vicious instincts, are shocked by these ideas and desires,
and, excited by the wound thus inflicted upon them, they react more
or less vigorously, according to the degree of power they have in each
individual. From this, a moral conflict springs up in the soul between
the good and the evil sentiments. In this moral conflict appear, accord-
ing to the more or less perfect moral nature of the man normally consti-
tuted, three orders of sentiments: 1. The good sentiments, which are
developed and exert their force on the selfish side — that is to say, the
moral sentiments which prompt to virtue and withhold from vice in a
well-considered personal interest, but with no other view than some
present or future advantage; such for example as the fear of imnish-
ishment, of public scorn, of the loss of liberty, the dread of being de-
prived of the enjoyment of one's possessions, of being separated from
his family, of leading a wretched life, a life full of privations, &c.
2. The generous sentiments, which lead us to act charitably toward our
fellows, under the promptings of a kind heart, and with a view to the
contentment of our generous inclinations. 3. The moral sense, the sen-
timent of right and wrong, accompanied by a feeling of ohligation to
do what is right, not in view of any satisfaction or advantage to be
hoped from it, but because it is right ; and to abstain from what is
wrong, not on account of any suffering to be feared as a consequence,
but because it is felt to be wrong. This unselfish and disinterested sen-
timent is the highest exj)ression of the conscience, and its motive
power of action, instead of being some personal interest or satisfaction,
is duty. It is this lofty moral faculty which makes the man who is so
happy as to possess it feel that he must repel a vicious or criminal act,
however great the advantage to be gained by it, and however painful the
course to be taken. It is this which drew from Kant, the great German
I>hilosoi)her and moralist, the exclamation, profoundly true : ^'Duty!
wonderful idea, which acts neither by insinuation, nor by flattery, nor
by menace, but simply by sustaining in the soul thy naked law, thus
compelling respect for thyself, if not always securing obedience to thy
commands."
Such are the three (U'dersof sentiiiunits, of moral instincts, with which
nature has endowed us to combat the per\'erse instincts wliich she has
also ])laced in our hearts, thus putting the antidote at the side of the*
poison.
Let us now glance at mankind as a whole. By the side of men
normally constituted, altliough imperfect because they are men, what
do we see? Anoma]i(;s, monstrosities. Ju a- pliysical point of view, by
the side of m<Mi well-formed, of robust health, of beautiful and noble
forms, we find l)eings sickly, weak, ill-shajx'd, ])uny. Viewing men
inttillectually, what do we see!? The same, dilfer*Mices. V>y the side of
men of gtMiius, who (ireate, sciences, who jjroduce those marvels of the
imagination which, in literature and tln^ aits, excite our enthusiasm, we
lind vulgar intelligences, insensible to tlu^ creations of genius and the
splendors of nature, incapabh', of lilting themselves above the dii-ection
of their business and the material wants of life. J)es(;ending in the
ABNORMAL MORAL STATE OF CRIMINAL.S. d4l
scale, we meet, at last, with the weak-minded, the imbecile, the idiotic.
These natural impeil'ections, these anomalies, these intirmities, these
monstrosities, which we see in the physical and intellectual world,
exist also in the moral, as marked, as numerous, and as varied.
It is to the reality and the nature of these moral anomalies that I de-
sire to call the attention of tliis congress, for these anomalies, the sad-
dest, i)erhaps, of those which alfect humanity, are completely ignored, or
rather their importance has not been perceived. Just because the man
is in health, because he has command of his ideas, becnuse he reasons,
because he is inieUectuaUy intelligent, it has been thought that he must
be also morallij intelligent ; that his moral faculties are in a healthy state ;
that his conscience is capableof feelingand weighingright and wrong, and
that he possesses the ability to repress his evil desires without having
ever dreamed of studying his moral nature, the state of his conscience ;
■without having once thought of inquiring whether he is really endowed
with moral instincts, with the moral faculties direct!}' antagonistic to
the depraved instincts.
The infirmities, the moral anomalies, to which your attention has been
called, what are they 1 In what part of the man are they to be sought ?
Is it in the depraved instincts, in the immoral proclivities, m the criminal
desires, even ? Not at all ; for, as I have already observed, the perverse
sentiments, and the depraved ideas and desires which they inspire, are as
much inherent in humanity as the virtuous sentiments and their moral
inspirations. The presence of perverted sentiments does not, then* of
itself constitute an anomaly. V/henever the antidote is found in the
heart beside the poison, the moral state of that man is regular. But
suppose the antidote represented by the moral sentiments is either too
Aveak or wholly wanting. In that case the anomaly exists incoutestably,
the moral equilibrium is destroyed, for the v.irtuous instincts of the soul,
and the moral thoughts inspired by them, can alone serve as a counter-
poise to the power of evil passions, of perversity. It is this psychic
anomaly, this feebleness, this absence of conscience with which criminals
are stricken ; and it is this alone which makes the criminal ; it is this
which makes it possible for a man to commit acts that wound profoundly
the moral sense. The intellectual faculties are incapable, b3' them-
selves, of serving as a counter] )oise to depravity ; they take part in the
combat against it only when they are directed in their activity by the
moral faculties. It is a psychological principle which I have demon-
strated in the work to which reference was made above, and which shows
the supreme importance of the part played by these latter faculties in
the battle against crime.
The psychic anomalies now under consideration, the absence of the
moral faculties which, connected as it is with the presence of the im-
moral proclivities, makes criminals, are often hereditary, as are all the
other vices which inhere in human nature. How often do descendants
inherit from their ancestors the moral anotualies out of which ^rime, for
the most part, springs ! Not the slightest doubt can rest upon this
point in presence of the numerous examples cited by Dr. Bruce Thomp-
son, physician to the prison of Perth, in the Edinburgh Evening Courant
of the 2Gth November, 18G9. The organic condition connected with
these grave moral anomalies, without being a real disease, since it co-
exists with a healthy state of the body, has, nevertheless, a relationship
more or less remote, but indubitable, with the pathological conditions
of the brain, which produce the different varieties of insanity. The
cases in which the children of the insane become ordinary criminals are
342 NATIONAL PKISON REFORM CONGRE.SS OF 1373.
too numerous not to attribute the origin of this fact to au hereditary or-
ganic iniiuence.
The extreme feebleness, and still more the absence, of the moral
instincts, whether due to the fact that their precious germs, congeni-
tally too weak to exhibit themselves spontaneously, have not been de-
veloped by a right moral education, or to tlie fact that the germs of
these faculties are altogether wanting, constitute the saddest of the
monstrosities to w^hich the human race is subject. This monstrosity
may receive various designations; I have given it, indiscriminately, the
name of moral itliocy, moral insensibility, lack of conscience, different
terms which give an exact idea of its nature. It dilfers infinitely in its
forms, according as the virtuous sentiments are weak or deficient, and
in its intensity, according to the degree of weakness found in these sen-
timents, a weakness which may reach to an absolute nullity. The sen-
timents whose feebleness or absence makes the moral idiot may be
divided into three classes: 1, the moral sense; 2, the generous senti-
ments— pity, benevolence, charity, respect; 3, the sentiments of pru-
dence, foresight, fear, and a well-considered personal interest. Let us
take a rapid survey of the several kinds of moral idiocy caused by the
absence of these various moral sentiments.
1. The absence of the moral sense in criminals may be readily made
apparent. The conscience of the man who is so happy as to possess jt,
is wounded by his depraved thoughts, desires, and acts. It is, there-
fore, evident that he vvho experiences no moral repulsion in the presence
of his criminal desires, and who, after having satisfied these desires,
has no feeling of remorse, is really without a moral sense. This absence
of moral recoil from criminal desires and of remorse after the commis-
sion of crime is a fact of observation of which I cannot now stay to
give the proofs ; but they have already been given by many observers.
2. The generous sentiments are wanting in criminals equally with the
moral sense. Ilvature has endowed most men with sentiments of pity,
of benevolence, and of charity toward other men. But great criminals
are an exception to this rule. Without pity for the victims whom they
rob or assassinate, the commencement of the criminal act awakens no
kindly sentiment within them ; nor does it recall them to moral reason,
or arrest them in the execution. They destroy everything which forms
an obstacle to their rapacity, and they do not cease to strike till their
victim is without life. They never bemoan him; they even insult his
corpse, cast ridicule upon it, and eat and drink tranquilly beside it.
They have no sense of the vahie of human life. They murder for the
veriest trifles, for a few pieces of money, for a momentary gratification;
and not a thought is given to the sorrow they will cause to the family"
of their victim. If they commit the crime under some violent passion,
they boast of the act; thej- glory in it; and they declare themselves
ready to repeat what they have done. Jf their victim has escai)ed
their rag^', they loudly ])ro(;laim their regret, and express their deter-
mination to b(; more* adroit next tinu;. The re[)orts of the cou)t of assizes
are filled with exidences of the <'-ynicism with which ciiininals make
these declarations. Insensible to tins e\'il which they commit, regard-
less of the. sad fate of their \ictims and of tlx'ir families, they are
rqnaily indilfen'ut to the )»nnishnirnts to whi(;h their accomplices may
be snl)jcctcd. It is truly marvelous to observe the faiulity with which
criminals, who have hreii ancsted, denounce their a(H;omi)lices who are
still at liberty, and how willingly they aid in their arrest. Tiiey do
tliis either with the selllsh aim of translening to tluMr acc()mi)li(;es the
responsibility of the acts whose i)ressure they feel and of being less
ABNORMAL MORAL STATE OF CRIMINALS. d4d
severely tieate<l, or Avith the wicked purpose of iuvolvinj? tbeiii iu pun-
ishraeut, and of not suffering alone the chastisement with which they
are menaced. Tlie bond which unites these wretched bein^js is interest
alone, and not affection. Thus, the moment this selfish bond is broken,
they treat each other as enemies.
o. The sentiments which stand connected with a well considered self-
interest are those Avhich are most frequently wanting iu these excep-
tional beinj»-s, so abnormall}' constituted as regards the natural instincts
of the soul. The lack of prudence is most conspicuous in individuals
destitute of the moral sense, and in whom the selfish fear of punishment
is stitled by some violent passion, such as hatred, vengeance, jealonsj',
and sometimes even avarice. In that case,wesee these madmen threaten,
publicly or privately, the person who is the object of their i^assion with
the fate to which they have doomed him. These reiterated menaces in-
dicate with certainty a crime on thepoint of commission, which it would
be easy to prevent. There are criminals so devoid of the sentiment of
]»rudence, tliat they talk coolly of appropriating what belongs to others
by brushing aside all the obstacles which they encounter, so that, when
the crime has been committed, the author is instantly recognized.
Improvidence is strongly characteristic of the greater part of crimi-
nals. It is owing to this singular trait, which belongs, more or less, to
the whole class, that they are entirely absorbed by the desire which
possesses them at tlie moment. One w^ould say that they do not so
much as cast a thought toward the future, which, for them, is as though
it would never be. The consequences of the crimes which they medi-
tate make no impression upon them : and if they think at all of punish-
ment, it seems to them that they will never be overtaken by it. Their
mind is intent solely on satisfying present desires, iu regard to which
their conscience has no reproaches. In this manner, nearly all pursue
the end they have in view, scarcely thinking of punishment, rushing
fearlessly after some material good, often of infinitesimal proportions —
after miserable pittances of money, madly squandered in a few days,
even in a few hours. This extreme improvidence and this absence of
fear give to criminals an audacity and an effrontery truly surprising.
Without moral curb, and scarcely held in check by the well-considered
self-interest which fear inspires, how should they not be daring, auda-
cious *? But this blind audacity is not born of true courage, which fore-
sees danger, which fears it even, and which confronts it under the sole
impulse of duty. This stolid audacity is the result of several species of
moral insensibility, by which the criminal is characterized.
The man who can sell, at so cheap a rate, everything which a rational
regard to his own interest would prompt him to desire, must necessa-
rily be but feebly endowed with the sentiments which that interest in-
spires, and especially with fear. For trifling and transitory advantages,
he exposes himself to the hardest chastisements, to the loss of personal
liberty in places of detention, where he will be treated with severity ;
he exposes himself to be sei)arated from his family, to be scorned, to
die a violent and ignominious death, which wounds to the last degree
the dignity of man. In a word, he prefers a vagrant and precarious
existence to a life tranquil and regular.
In presence of these various sorts of moral insensibility, w^hich are
found in different degrees iu all criminals, can there remain a doubt
that these wretched beings are the subjects of a grave moral anomaly?
Can there be a doubt ftf it, when this absence or deficiency of the moral
faculties shows itself so palpably in its ettects — first in the absence of
all reprobation of the criminal thought, and then in the utter absence
344 NATIONAL PEISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
of remorse after the crimiual act ? If I were not restricted to the nar-
row limits of a lecture, it would be casj' to prove tbat tbe absence of
tbese bigber faculties causes a rude sbock to reason and to moral lib.
erty ; but I will confine myself strictly to tbe question in band.
Tbe understanding, bowever great it may be, does not prevent or
diminisb tbe sbock caused to tbe reason aud tbe moral liberty of tbe
criminal by bis moral insensibility ; it does not bold tbis man back from
crime. Far from it. Tbe understanding, wben guided exclusively by
perverted moral instincts, becomes, on tbe contrary, a power all tbe
more dangerous in i^roportion as it is developed. Intent solely on tbe
satisfaction of tbese instincts, it devises criminal projects and seeks tbe
means of carrying tbem into effect; it produces, above all, malefactors
fertile in criminal inventions, able cbiefs of criminal gangs. In men
depraved and morally icsensible, tbe understanding is, tberefore, a dan-
gerous power.
Mere intellectual knowledge bas very little influence in lidding back
tbese morally insensible natures from tbe perpetration of tbe crimes to
wbicb tbey are urged by tbeir evil iustincts ; of wbicb let tbe following
fact serve as proof. Criminals know tbat wbat tbey do is forbidden by
tbe laws, and tbat tbey are menaced by punisbments; tbey know, gen-
erally, even tbe kind of penalties to wbicb tbey expose tbemselves by
sucb or sucb a crime; for professional criminals are well acquainted
with tbe articles of tbe i:)enal code wbicb concern tbemselves. But
does tbis knowledge binder tbeir attempts against society "? Xot in tbe
least ; society is none tbe less assailed by them. Laws and punisb-
ments are alike powerless, wben tbe moral idiocy of tbese criminally-
inclined beings extends to tbe imbecility or absence of tbe sentiuient
of fear; a tbing by no means rare. Tbis fact bas long been well known,
for it is an old experience: "Laws witbout good morals profit notbiug."
Laws, witbout moral sentiments and tbe good manners to wbicb tbey
give birth, are powerless aud vain. The utter inefflcacy of mere head
knowledge, of intellectual i)0wer, before tbe depraved instincts of men
devoid of moral sentiments, bas not esca])ed the sagacity of tbe bonor-
able president of tbe American Prison Association, ]\lr. Horatio Sey-
mour, who expressed it in the followiug terms, at a public meeting beld
in Xew York, January 26, 1872 : " Crime grows in skill with every ad-
vance of the arts and sciences. Knowledge is power, but it is not
virtue. It is as ready to serve evil as good." At a time wben almost
everywhere, and esi)ecially in France, intellectual culture is proclaimed
as the princii)al barrier agaiust crime; at a time wben little impor-
tance is attached to moral culture by means of education, the true means
nevertheless of preventing this odious act, I am happy to be able to
cite, in support of my opinion, a rcs])ectable name, and one having a
higher authority than mine.
1 liave spoken only of criminals who commit crime in cold blood. I
desiie to ad<l a few words concerning criminals who commit such acts
under the inlluence of violent passions, such as hatred, revenge, jealousy,
anger. In most of these, we find a moral insensibility as great as in
c()ld-l)looded criminals; an insensibility ]»roved by tbe absence of re-
moise, alter tb<' eiime. Still, a small number of these ])ers<)ns may pos-
sess the moial sentiments to a suHieient degree. Smldenly overborne
by some violent jiassion, which instantly stiliesand paial.yzes tbe nobler
sentiments, tbey liiid themselves lor the time, morally insensil)le, and
tbey commit the eiimeat, a moment wben all they* Iceland think i)usbes
tbem on to it, and wln-n none of their virtuous sentiments has suflicient
force to eombiif the eiiminal desiic. J>iit wben once the jtassion is sat-
ABNORMAL MOEAL STATE OF CRIMINALS. d45
isfled, it loses its power, and no longer holds complete possession of the
soul. Then the moral sentiments, momentarily stifled, resume their
activity, and, shocked by the depraved act, they produce a feeling of
remorse and at the same time of regret that an act has been done con-
trary to their own interest ; a remorse and regret all the more vivid,
because the sentiments which had felt the shock, and which now cause
these pangs of rei)entance, are stronger and more powerful than the
passions which had obtained a temporary victory. In some cases, the
moral suffering is so violent that it plunges the individual into despair,
and impels him to suicide. I cau only make a passing reference to
these rare cases of genuine remorse after the commission of crime. We
never meet with this sentiment in the criminal who has acted in cold
blood, and only in a few rare cases do we meet it in one who has com-
mitted the crime under the influence of a violent passion. With these
latter, amendment is prompt and easy, and relapses do not occur. This
fact, which is altogether natural, did not escape Mittermaier. Persons
employed in prisons, he says, have remarked that those imprisoned for
crimes committed under the influence of violent passions — accidental
crimes — sometimes show signs of repentance ; that they are more sub-
missive ; and that they exhibit a conduct more regular than criminals
who have acted in cold blood, and of whom a great number are crimi-
nals by profession.
This rapid and very incomplete survey which I have made of the
psychical state of criminals, will, I think, be sufflcient to convince the
members of this congress that account should be taken of it in the treat-
ment to which they are subjected, the study of which treatment is the
object for which the congress is convened.
As the criminal offers a serious danger to society, society must defend
itself against him ; this is an incontestable right. But against whom
has society to exercise that right! Is it against a man who has in his
conscience, like other men, the necessary means to combat and conquer
his immoral desires? According to the very brief description I have
given of the abnormal moral state of which all criminals are more or
less the subjects, we cannot fail to see that the moral faculties, which
are pre-eminently the antagonists of the vicious sentiments, are want-
ing to them in different degrees. If these men, the subjects of a real
moral idiocy, are dangerous, they are also deserving of our pity. To
shield ourselves from the danger with which they menace us, we are
under a necessity of separating them from society. This separation,
with the hard conditions necessarily involved in it, constitutes in itself
a punishment. I need not here concern myself with the kind of impris-
onment which it is most expedient to adopt in regard to them ; that does
not belong to the subject which I i^roposed to consider. Still, I will ex-
press, in two words, my thought on this point: I regard all modes of
imprisonment as evil and dangerous, as well to society as to the criminal,
if their onl}^ aim is punishment pure and simple. I think, also, that all
modes, provided only that mode is chosen which is best suited to the
special character of each criminal, may be good, if they have in viev
the true interest of society, which is entirely based on the moral regen-
eration of the criminal, and if also the most effectual means are taker*
to accomplish that regeneration. The treatment which aims only to
punish for the sake of punishing is dangerous both to society and the
criminal • it never improves the criminal, and often makes him worse ;
it produces from 40 to 4o per cent, of recidivists. Let me cite here, as
regards the existing prison system in France, some words of a French
magistrate, which attest its total want of success. " In vain,'' says M,
346 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
Bonneville tie Marsangy, " have our successive governments, in their
anxiety for improvement, sent to ywitzerland, to Belgium, to Holland,
to Spain, to the United States even, citizens of the highest distinction,
for tbe pnrpose of collecting infofmation on all the experiments which
have been tried; in vain have they sought the opinion of the members
of the magistracy and of the high functionaries ot the administration ;
in vain have they appealed to the special knowledge of the directors,
chaplains, and inspectors of prisons ; in vain have the legislative cham-
bers elaborated the bills of 1840, 1844, and 181() ; in vain has the Acad-
emy of Moral and Political Sciences undertaken the study of this delicate
question : we are compelled to confess that, at the very moment in
which I speak, all these imposing and multiplied labors and eftbrts have,
so far, wrought no practical result, and the innumerable deliberations
had on the penitentiary question, instead of eliciting light, certainty,
agreement on certain well-understood points, seem to have produced
absolutely nothing but coiifusion and mistrust, a sort of final impuis-
sance, terminating in the statu quo ; we are always there." This avowal
was made in 1867, in an article published in the Contemporaneous Ee-
view. And is not this very congress a fresh proof that all is still un-
settled in the penitentiary question 1 If such is the fact, we may rest
assured that it is because we have taken a wrong road ; it is because,
hitherto, having taken as our guides on this question only fear and
vengeance, and not scientific data, we have ever had in view punish-
ment alone ; it is because, never having studied the moral state which
leads a man to crime, we have ignored this abnormal condition altogether,
and we have not been able to perceive that, in order to arrive at a favor-
able result, "we must aim to bring down to the lowest possible point this
anomaly, which is so fruitful a source of crime. I have shown that the
criminal is a being apart, that he is different, in a moral point of view,
from other men. If this is so, would not the best way to prevent crime
and protect society be to cause this difference to cease, if not wholly,
since that is impossible, at least approximately,, enough to render the
criminal a safe member of society. The legislation which takes this
])oint of departure will attain, we may be well assured, a degree of per-
fection which has no existence at the present moment; for, as lieccaria
has said, "All legislation which stops with the punishment of crime,
and does not aim to effectually prevent it, is imperfect." Now, to Im-
prove the prisoner, to develop in him the germs of whatever good senti-
ments he may possess, weie they but the sentiments of material interest
if he has no others, sentiments with which, nevertheless, he will be able
to fight his depraved appetites; to give him the habit and the love of
labor, by which he will be able to live honestly; and to arrive at these
results by liumane i)rocesses, with a view to teach him by example to
act with "humanity himself, instead of treating him as we would not
treat dnnd) beasts— is not this the true means of preventing crime?
Keformatory treatment, api)lied to individuals abnormally organized
in a moral jxiint of view, is not a Utopia born of my imagination. M.
Demetz is tin; first who ])ractise(l this tieatment in France, which he
lias done with rare; perfection in the Juvenih; penitentiary of iMettray.
Whih! these Juvenile (h'lin(jnents, when thrown into i)rison i)ell-mell with
adult criminiils, showed seventy-live recidivists in every hundred, they
sliow only four percent, under the strict but i>aternal direction of M.
Demetz. No doid)t this system, api>lied to adults, wotdd recpiire some
modifications; but the base would be the same. Tiie reformatory sys-
tem has ])een also applied to adults, and, although its application has
Iwen but iinperfeclly npplied in their case, it has, nevertheless, yielded
ABNORMAL MORAL, STATE OF CRIMINALS. 347
very remarkable results. In my work ou criminals I have cited, among
other results, those obtained by the director of the penitentiary of Al-
bertville, Savoy, during- an administration full of mingled firmness and
gentleness. He governed his prisoners by awakening in them virtuous
sentiments. By this means he obtained such an ascendency over them
that he did not hesitate to let them go outside of the prison i)remises,
single or in companies, under the surveillance of a keeper, to execute
various labors. In this manner he so held them to duty by the bond
of gratitude and love, that he was nevet compromised by a solitary es-
cape; for the prisoners knew that by running away they would compro-
mise the lesponsibility of their benefactor. Compelled at length b}' the
administration to carry out, in all their rigor, mere ofiQcial and routine reg-
ulations, and that, too, despite the exceptional morality and the habit of
work which he had introduced into the prison, this model director prefer-
red rather to resign his position than hold it at the cost of putting in prac-
tice a discipline which he knew to be detestable. ISor is this the only
example that can be cited in favor of the superiority of moral over phy-
sical force in subduing and controlling prisoners. The honorable Dr.
TVines, in a report, made at a meeting in !New York last January, of
the result of his voyage to Europe for the purpose of organizing the
International Penitentiary Congress of London, referred to the Irish
system devised and carried out by Sir Walter Crofton. " Never have I
seen, elsewhere," says I)r. Wines, " anything comparable to the inter-
mediate prison at Lusk. Here is a prison which is not a prison, con-
sisting of two iron tents capable of accommodating a hundred inmates,
and a farm of two hundred acres — an establishment without bars, bolts,
or inclosing walls ; and yet, in fourteen years not a dozen escapes have
taken place, thus proving the dictum of Dr, Wichern, that 'the strong-
est wall is no wall;' in other words, that a wall of intiuence is stronger
than a wall of granite." This is precisely what has been said by M.
Yacherot, of the Institute: "Attraction in the realm of mind is the
greatest directing force — the surest means of government."
It is not claimed that all criminals are capable of being improved, re-
formed by moral treatment. This system, although the most rational,
will not always succeed. The moral nature of assassins and habitual
criminals is so bad that they will sometimes continue rebellious to the
end. Xevertheless moral treatment, surrounded by the necessary pre-
cautions, ought still to be tried upon them, and may produce marvelous
results. However that may be, the criminal ought to re-enter society
only when he has given guarantees of safety by his good conduct and
industry, either in the prison itself or during a period of provisional
liberty, and not at the end of a time lixed in advance by the law, as is
the case in the system which makes punishment its sole aim. In a better
system, which raises the penitentiary question to the rank of a science,
each prisoner should be studied individually and treated according to
his character and according to the degree of moral idiocy with which he
is affected. To treat all criminals in the same manner is as absurd as
would be the proposition to cure all the diseases of the body, diversified
as they are, by the same medical agents. It is in making these princi-
ples the starting-point — principles based on a conscientious psychologi-
cal study of criminals — that we shall, little by little, be able to see
crime diminish in frequency. I cannot too earnestly recommend this
study. The proposal to build any system of criminal treatment what-
soever without giving it a scientific basis is a proposal to rear upon
shifting sands a structure that shall be solid and enduring.
Eminent men, inspired by the noblest instincts of the heart, b}^ pity
348 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873
toward beingvs morally feeble, have uudertakeu, by gentle and loving
means, to lead them to a regular and virtuous life, hi employing a sys-
tem opposed to official rigor they have succeeded in their attempt.
AVhat these benefactors of the human race have essayed under the sole
inspiration of their feeliugs is precisely what is taught by cold, hard
science, that is to say, a criminal treatment inspired and guided by a
knowledge of the psychical state of criminals and of the laws whicli
govern the moral world. In effect, it is impossible that science should
find itself in antagonism with the highest moral teaching, viz, to render
good for evil. Science tlemonstrates that society, in its own interest,
should employ' toward the man who has injured it a treatment which,
though marked by the utmost firmness, shall be, at the same time,
humane and charitable.
2. On the treatment of long- sentenced and life-sentenced
prisoners.
By Mary Carpe7iter, England.
The right treatment of prisoners condemned to confinement for life,
or for so long a period as to be virtually tantamount to this, has never
yet received special attention in public discussion on prison discipline.
It was thought expedient by those who prepared the i)rograu)me of
the recent Prison Congress at Loudon, that this first meetnig of the kind
which has ever taken place in the history of the world should not be
embarrassed by the introduction of any topics likel.y to involve consid-
erable differences of principle and practice ; it was therefore determined
that the subjects of inquiry should be confined to the general objects of
l)rison discipline and the reformatory treatment of offenders, whether
adult or juvenile. Thus was obtained from that most important assem-
blage, which represented the whole civilized world, an acceptance and
declaration of principles which will serve as a basis of future legislation
in every country. Those persons who are cut off" from society for their
evil deeds, and who are briefly' denominated " convicts," can no longer
be ignorantly treated in a manner calculated to jiroduce the most in-
jurious effects on society, as well as on themselves. The i)ublic has had
light thrown on the whole subject, and it is for them to require that the
treatment of those who must be returned to their midst shall be such
as to give reasonable ground for hope that they will return better, not
worse, for their imprisonment. Such is not, however, the case with
respect to life-sentenced prisoners. The public sees these persons, as
80on as their sentence is pronounced, removed forever from among
them. TJtey icill nerer of/aiii tale their place in society. They may even
be regaided, and aie so by law in some countries, as absolutely (lead to
the world. The nature of their sul)se(|uent lile is <juite unknown to the
l)ublic, who cannot intrude on tlu^ secicts of the prison house; they
cannot make their voices heard to tell ol" the misery they endure; they
will never go foith to say what they have suffered. J)ut the i)reseiit age
requires that tin', trc-atnient ol" sucli jx'rsons should be tiu' snbj('(;t of
very s]KM;ial consideration, for tin; number of them will be continually
increasing, as the baibarous death-penalty disappears from the code of
civilization. Jt in disappeariny^ and must continue to do .so, as education
brings enlightenment willi it, and tlu! pnbbc mind comprehends the true
ends of punishment. 'J1ie- gil)bets placi'd conspicuously on a high hill
to .scare evil doers with the sight of decnying corpses are moldering
away, and stand only as beacons to mark the piogress of society. In
TREATMENT OF LIFE-SENTENCED PRISONERS. 349
Great Britain, wliicli uuliappily still lingers, the ghastly spectacle of
an execution is no longer paraded before the i)ublic, but is hidden in a
horrible seclnsion ; in a neighboring country the continual legal mas-
sacres which are still appalling distant lands have not yet ceased to
render the public mind callous, if it is not anguished, by their frequent
occurrence. We shall aid the abolition of this inhuman punishment, if
we can point out a way in wl.iich the ends of justice can be served with-
out it.
It is, then, the object of the present papc r to consider the difference
which exists between life-sentenced and ordinary convicts; next, to con-
sider the principles which should guide ns in their treatment; and
finally we shall endeavor to show how these principles may be practi-
cally developed.
For this inquiry we shall not consider separately long-sentenced and
life-sentenced prisoners, because when the certain term of detention
reaches fifteen years, or even less, the uncertainty of life, and the
knowledge of the changes which must have taken i^lace in all ties of
family and friendship, even if liberty is eventually obtained, renders
the dreary future as appalling as if it were certain that death alone will
release the unhappy prisoner. We shall therefore here speak only of
" life-sentenced prisoners."
Now, when we consider the treatment of ordinary convicts, we regard
them generally as habitual criminals, such being usually tlie persons
sentenced to a term of years in a convict prison. The cases in which,
persons are so sentenced for a first offense are exceptional ones. The
ordinary convict may be thus described : The habitual offenders who
constitute the largest proportion of the inmates of convict prisons are
in a state of absolute antagonism to society and disregard of ordi-
nances, human and divine. They are usually hardened in vice, and
they concern themselves with the law only to endeavor to evade it.
They dislike labor of all kinds, and to sujjply their own wants exert
themselves only by preying on the property of others. They are self-
indulgent, low in their desires, ignorant of all knowledge that would
profit them, and skillful only in accomplishing their own wicked purposes.
Such is not necessarily the case with life-sentenced prisoners. The
crime for which this sentence is inflicted is commonly murder, and this
crime involves very difi'erent degrees of criminality in the several cases,
and does not indicate in itself the type of character usually found in
the convict prisons. At the same time it shows a mental and physical
condition most dangerous to society.
Now, in the treatment of both classes of these criminals the same
grand objects should guide us — the i^rotection of societ^^, the mini-
mizing of crime, and the reformation of the offender. It has been,
shown in the Crolton system of prison discipline how all these may be
harmoniously combined. But it is the great aim of ordinarj^ reforma-
tory prison discipline to restore the offenders to society and to obliterate,
if possible, the memory of his crime by the entire change in his future
life. In effecting this reformation hope forms a most important element
of treatment, and the daily effort to attain the desired result of the
remission of sentence, with other advantages to be enjoyed, especially
the attainment of liberty, constitutes the most valuable part of prison
training. But in the case of the life-sentenced prisoner, supposing the
crime to be murder or some other horrible offense, the memory of it
can never be effaced, though repentance may draw a veil before it;
society will never receive him again, however penitelit; no efforts of his
can obtain his release; and hope, the grand spring of human action, is
350 NATIONAL rPiISUN REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
"witbdrawn fiom him. The condition of mind in which he is therefore
necessarily plauged is one which mast render him a burden to himself
and a dangerous associate for others. Then, again, the ordinary con-
vict is probably not in general much tormented by the reproaches of
conscience. It is not until he has made considerable jtrogress in
reformation that he can see in its true colors the evils of liis past life
and feel remorse for it. But the crimes which receive the award of
confinement for life are usually of a kind at which human nature revolts
when not under the immediate thraldom of violent passion. The secret
anguish of remorse so truly described by our own Shakespeare, in his
Lady Macbeth, must constitute a source of life-misery.
The first murderer, when informed that his life would be spared,
exclaimed in the agony of his spirit, "My punishment is greater than J
can bear." And the same has been felt by others who, under commuta-
tion of sentence, have found the pangs of a guilty conscience in a con-
vict prison more than they could bear, and have committed suicide.
Again, the ordinary condition of habitual criminals may be calculated
on, and a system of discipline maj^ be arranged for them accordingly.
But the crimes which are followed by a life-sentence are very frequently
regarded as symptoms of insanity, either temporary or the result of
unbridled passions which have destroyed the mejital equilibrium,- they
require special treatment, and for want of any such provision are placed
in a criminal lunatic asylum, though in no other respect than the crime
they had committed did they show indications of mental aberration.
It is evident, then, that these two classes of convicts are totally distinct,
and require a kind of treatment of a very different nature. The very
presence of one class with the other is injurious. Every one conversant
with prison management is fully aware that the mixture of short-sen-
tenced prisoners with convicts is detrimental to the discipline and order,
of a jail ; the difficulty is not less which is caused by the presence of life-
sentenced prisoners, who require, and who ought to have, very ditferent
treatment from ordinary convicts. There ought to be a separate place ^ in
every country^ ichere life sentenced priaonern can he placed to receive appro-
priate treatment.
Let us now consider what are the principles which should guide' us
in our treatment of them.
First. Thei:e must be protection to society from any danger aris-
ing from the escape of such prisoners. Security is always a \^ry
important element in penal discipline, and in this case especially so.
The dreadful tragedy by which India was recently dei>rived of her
illustrious viceroy ought never to have taken place. A known mur-
<lerer, however mihl may have been his general demeanor, should never
have had the jtossibility of escai»ing Irom surveillance, and availing
himself of (leadly weapons, especially at a time of peculiar excitement.
No one can Icll what are tlie secret workings in the murderer's heart, or
the craft with which he can conceal them. The protection of society is
of course an important object in all penal discipline, but in this case es-
pecially.
Secondly. The deterrent eflect on society of the treatment of these life-
H<;ntenced prisoners exists solely in the fa<;t of their removal /orerer/rom
ike world. The special treatment must be regulated not only so as to
secure the jx-rsonal safety of the ])risoner, but a^ the same time to pro-
mote his reformation, as a primary oliject.
Thirdly. With a view to this last ol)je('t, the Avhole system must be so
arranged in its ditf^'reri-nt i>ails as to inluse the element of hope into the
l)risonci' from tlie very commencement of his incarceration. The awful
TREATMENT OF LIFE-SENTENCED PRISONERS. 351
sentence, '' Who enters here, leaves hope behind," placed by Dante over
the entrance to his Inferno, innst have no ])lace here. Humble peni-
tence for past evil, with dee]) sorrow for sin, must be blended not only
with hope of i)ardt>niiig- love in another worhl, but also in this. Hope
must be excited of the possibility of re^aininsj some happiness eveii in this
seclusion, and even of making' some small restitution to injured society.
In order to make myself better understood, I shall here, before stating
what I conceive should be the practical development of a prison for life-
sentenced prisoners, mention two cases which came under my own ob-
servation in a recent journey on the continent of Euiope.
The first case was that of a man who was sentenced to twenty years'
imprisonment for murder. He was in a jail where strict discipline on
the Crofton system was carried out, as far as it could be in buildiufifs
not arranged for the purpose, and without any intermediate stage. An
excellent tone pervaded the place, and the associated labor had a very
good influence on the prisoners, in wdiom, generally, there evidently existe<l
a desire to do their duty. The director, a gentleman wlio devoted himself
to the well-being of the prisoners and took a strong personal interest in
them, informed me that this man had been there for two years, and had
eighteen more to remain ; that he labored under deep and morbid de-
pression of mind, from which he could not be roused ; the future was dark
and dreary before him ; it was not probable that he would live to regain
his liberty; and if he did, what happiness would he have when all his
friends would probably be dead or dispersed ! The director had tried to
place him in associated labor- to relieve the gloomy monotonvof his life,
but his irritable disposition compelled his removal from it. The director
asked me to see him. I went to his cell, and found him as described;
skilled labor had been provided for him, but there was deep gloom
around him. I addressed to him such religious observations as seemed
appropriate to his case, and he seemed comforted. The next time I
heard of him he was ill. The director found his presence a great diffi-
culty in the management of the prison, nor could he deal with him as
his judgment would direct, under such circumstances.
The other case, in another city, was that of a female poisoner who
had been confined already eighteen years. The prison where I saw her
was a temporary one, formerly a lumxtic asylum, and there did not ap-
pear to be any attempt to carry out a system in the management of it.
I was accompanied by a gentleman resident in the neighborhood. A
male oflticial introduced me to the small room where the poor woman
was confined. She was in a nervous, dejected state, and said she could
not do the work, which lay untouched on her table, from a weakness
which evidently arose from dejection. She seemed thankful for sym-
pathy. She complained that she had often been accused of committing,
in the prison, offenses of which she was innocent. She had no friends,
or relatives, except one sou, of whom she knew nothing. It was diffi-
cult to know what to say to her. Aftt^r I left her, and the official had
again confined her in her dreary solitude, we heard her singing in a
wild, maniacal manner. My friend and I thought that immediate death
would have been a more merciful intiiction on her than this protracted
mental torture. 1 did not desire to see another female prisoner in the
same jail, who had committed many murders. A gentleman afterward
told me that he had visited her, and found that a young woman was
confined in the same cell with her. I requested my friend to intercede
with the proper authorities for a mitigation of the punishment of the
poor woman I had seen. He afterward informed me that this was use-
less, as she was subject to violent paroxysms of passion, requiring sev-
352 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
eral meu to bold her. Both had done very malicious bodily injury to
female officials.
It will surely be acknowledged by any one who carefully considers
these two cases, which probably are not equally painful with many
which exist in various countries, that the abolition of capital punish-
ment absolutely requires us to consider what is the true treatment of
such persons as those to whom it M'ould formerly have been awarded.
The civilized world no longer tolerates the infliction of needless physical
pain as punishment. We shudder at the torture chamber of Nuremburg
and the instruments of torture exhibited in our own capital, as relics of
a barbarous age; yet we forget that, excruciating as was the pain then
inflicted on the body of the sufferer, it would gladly have been chosen
rather than years of mental anguish. We behold the dungeons of our
ancestors, and the dens where were thrust, wholesale, the intended
victims of the scaffold ; or the now crumbling towers Avhere a criminal
was immured for a short time, to be dragged forth to the place of ex-
ecution. But our whitewashed cells, with their dreadful monotony, in
which a human being is confined year after year, without hope of release,
are not realli/ more humane.
Let us now consider what should be the nature of a convict establish-
ment for life-sentenced prisoners:
Selection should in the first place be made of a proper site. The
safety of society is a prinmry consideration, and the more secure is the
locality the less need will there be for those irksome restrictions which
irritate the prisoner, and constantly remind him of his situation. If possi-
ble, an island should be selected, or, better still, two or three islands, suffi-
ciently near to each other to be within one general surveillance. The
choice of the locality should not be guided by the desire to make the
residence there as unpleasant as possible, but, by adaptation to theobject,
to secure the reformation of the prisoner. Barren, frozen regions should
not be selected, as some have proposed, where the spirit would become
as chilled and frigid as the physical frame; nor unwholesome, tropical
l)Iaces, where the influences are so depressing that the inhabitants of
the temperate zone must pine away and die miserably. Nor must we
choose a rugged and desolate district, where not even bounteous nature
repays, as is her wont, the toil of the husbandman. The loving heavenly
Father doeth good even to the unthankful and the evil : He sendeth His
sunshine and rain on the just and on the unjust. We are commanded to
be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect. We must strive after
this, and it is not for us to de])rive our fellow-sinners of a single good
Hud holy influence which nature would bestow on them. There
should be abundance of land, which the labor of the convicts could make
liighly productive. Siu;h a site should be sulficiently isolated, and yet
not so remote as to ]>revent the fre<pu'iit visits of i)crsons Avhose influ-
ence would be beneficial.
The w iiole territoiy should be so arranged as to admit of three distinct
stagi's, as Oh tin; (Jrofton system ; ])risons for separate confinement, for
associate<l labor, and for i)artial lii>erty, as in the Crofton intermediate
jirisons. J>(^sides these thei'o should be a fourth stape, corresponding to
liherty with the ordinary conrief. Here there should be little, except
the actual fact of pi()liil)ition to pass a certain boundary, which should
remind the reformed convict, who has attained it, that he is still under
sentence of law. 'i'lie space should be sufficiently large lor the life-
sentenced prisoiici' to have his family around him. Remunerative
labor should Ix^ provided, by which he might be able to relieve society
IVoMi the expense of his su]>porf, and even to repay what has been spent
TREATMENT 01' LIFE-SENTENCED PRISONERS. 353
on him. He might also be permitted to make some provision for his
family, aud prepare them for their free entrance on life.
It will be rememberetl that in Sir Walter Crofton's development of
his system in Ireland, the only complete illustration of it existing, each
stage was at some distance from the others, while his own mind kept all
in nnity. This m'hs attended with very beneficial eifect.s, as at each
stage the mind of the prisoner received a new stinuuns. Tbis is even
more desirable in the case under consideration, where every available
stimulus and excitement should be used to supply the place of that
great object of desire, the anticipation of release which has been with-
drawn.
While the general arran gements of the Crof ton system should be adopted
in these i)risons for life-sentenced prisoners, the stages may be passed
through more rapidly, and more privileges may be allowed as the result
of good conduct, such as communication with friends, and the purchase
of small articles which may relieve the monotony of the cell. There
should also be very careful and scientific medical superintendence of
the whole. The mind and the l)ody»have much to do with each other,
and in such cases particularly.
At Ahmedabad, in India, I saw a very remarkable lunatic asylum,
conducted by Dr. Wyllie, the able superintendent of the jail of that
place. Never have I seen a more pleasing spectacle of willing, cheer-
ful out-door labor than among the patients of that institution ; they
were not only earning money but bringing their physical and mental
powers into harmonious action. Among these the doctor pointed out
to me a class of murderers who were working in as orderly a way as the
others. The doctor observed them carefully and regidarly, and when
he saw in any one of them a peculiar appearance of the eye, he put him
under medical treatment, and the danger of an outbreak was removed.
The development of such a convict system for life and long-sentenced
prisoners in the Andaman Islands was regarded as very satisfactory,
when I had the opportunity of making inquiries respecting it, six years
ago. The fourth stage was on a separate island, where the convicts
lived in comparative freedom. Many convict women were sent out at
their own request to become their wives, and the settlement appeared
fully to realize the object intended.
The best treatment of life-sentenced women is a problem more diffi-
cult of solution than that of men. The subject is too perplexing and
important to be here briefly discussed. SufQce it to say that Sir Walter
Crofton has proved that it can be solved, and it ought to be considered
most carefully in every country. I trust it will receive the attention
it requires from those women as well as men whose sound hioivledge, large
experience, and devoted, loving hearts, inspire them with a faith which can
remove mountains.
If there are persons who have so little belief in the possibility of
overcoming evil with good, of touching the divine spirit which exists
in every child of the heavenly Father, however perverted and en-
thralled by the animal nature and passions, we would ask them to turn
for confirmation of the views taken in this paper to a convict settle-
ment in the center of India. It is well known that in that country
there was a race of natives, the Thugs, whose very religion and social
customs were based on professional murder, the secret of which was
transmitted from father to son, and the practice was thus perpetuated
from one generation to another. To reform them seemed impossible. The
practice formed so completely a part of their nature that when suffer-
ing under punishment they would declare that, wheuever released, they
H. Ex. 185 23
354 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF IS73.
must resuiue the horrid practice. Some forty years ago 14ieso Thugs,
whenever arrested, were subjected to strict imprisoninent and industrial
training in a phice appointed for them. As they appeared reformed
they were admitted to greater liberty, and a village was formed round
theiu, v.here their families live. Breach of regulations Avas at ouce
punished with rtturu to strict imprisonment. Various branches of
skilled labor have been introduced into this Thug village, at Jubbed-
poor, which are cow of great importance in a commercial point of
view. All excellent influence has been diffused around, and some of
those who were born and bred in jail are now among the first and
wealthiest in the community. Why should not the same be done for
our life-sentenced })risoners f
3. liEMAEKS ON SUNDRY TOPICS CONSIDERED IN THE INTERNATIONAX,
PENITENTIARY CONGRESS OF LONDON:
By the Bight Hon. Sir Walter Crofton, England.
]\[y Dear Dr. Wines : I regret very much that it is not in my power
to attend the Baltimore Congress. I need scarcelj' write that I wish it
every possible success. I have been ill for several months, and therefore
have been unable to attend the Social Science Congress at Plymouth, or
to initiate the further discussions which I consider to be necessary with
regard to the " Internafional Prison Congress.''
It is undeniable that this congress, thanks to your energy, ability,
and, allow uje to add, iactj proved a very great success. It contained
elements of discord which might have produced the result of separating
without passing any resolutions. It must be our care that those which
have been passed should be thoroughly understood.
Already I see indications that the advocates for strict separation until
the end of long sentences do not consider that any resolution has been
passed l)y the congress hostile to their opinions. But, if the resolution
recommending the adoption of '■'- progressice claHHificaiion''^ is not opposed
to these opinions I am entirely at a loss to conceive its meaning.
To my mind, the tone of the discussions abundantly illustrated that
the problem to be solved was not merely the question between "isola-
tion " and " progressive classilication," which had been disposed of at
an early period,* but the best mode of preparing a criminal for his re-
lease, so that on his liberation he sliould, by h'x's prison training^ be made
lit for the labor market, and employers of labor be induced to assist
him.
You will, I know, agree with me that if our prison training does not
attain these ends it Las accomplished but a small portion of its real
work.
I have list«;ned to many advocates of the system of entire isolation,
and liave read many of their works; moreover, 1 have noted its results
where carried out for lengtlnmed ]>eriods, both in I^higland and in Ire-
land, but J have entirely faile«l to realize how it would bo possible
under any artilicial system to attain the all-important ends to which I
have alluded.
I luily recognize the value of the isolated system from many points of
view. The absence of temptations wouhl reduce the number of prison
offeiiKes, and render the managi'ment ol" the establisiiments much easier,
and fuT- more agreeable to the officers. The small number of prison of-
'In tlu^ I'liifcd Kinj^dom, iiflcr iimcli (txpcrienco, " i.solaliDn" loi- l')ii;r periods of time
li.'w 1m;(!Ii C(»iidciiin<;d lor iiiaiiy yfiaiH.
CORPOREAL PUNISHMENT AND PENAL LABOR. 355
ficei's, and the general good conduct of prisoners, will of course induce
the assumption that amendment lias taken place, which, without the test
of registration and supervision after liberation, it will be impossible to
Terify.
I have for too many years struggled with the difficulty of rendering
criminals tit for tbe labor market and inducing employers to give them
work, to believe that this great object can be attained by any artificial
process in the criminal training. In some communities doubtless there
will not be the same difficulty as in others, but in all, to a greater or
lesser degree, difficulties will exist. In the United Kingdom, I feel
perfectly satisfied that any attempt to liberate men after a long period of
isolation, with the hope of their attaining employment, would result in
a most disastrous failure.
But do not let me be sui^posed to undervalue "isolation" in its place.
As the earliest stage of detention, I have the highest opinion of its im-
portance. I believe every system of prison discipline would fail with-
out this preliminary stage for reflection, so specially well adapted as it
is for repentance and religious instruction. It should be ever held to be
the basis of all prison systems.
You will, I feel sure, agree with me that the great pressure upon the
time of the congress, caused principally by the translation of the
papers and discussions, precluded the thorough consideration and dis-
cussion which some of the subjects imperatively required. Notably there
were two subjects, "corporal punishment," introduced by M. Stevens,
of Belgium, and "prison labor," by Mr. F. Hill; the arguments con-
cerning which were based upon a complete misunderstanding of the
system pursued in this country, and approved by the Grovernment. The
names of twelve or fourteen gentlemen were down as desirous of speak-
ing when the discussion was closed by the chairman.
From want of knowletlge of the existing practice, the arguments
were based on exceptional cases, and went upon a false issue. Under
these circumstances, the feeling at the congress was extremely hostile
both to the infliction of corporal punishment and to some of the
statutory requirements of hard labor, viz, the crank, tread wheel, and
shot-drill. Members of the congress spoke as if these were our ordinary
forms of punishment and of labor. But what are the facts f
Corporal punishment is retained as a very exceptional and not an
ordinary punishment, and is never resorted to save in cases in which a
most brutalized nature has been evinced by the offender, and then only
by magisterial order accompanied by medical sanction. It is not true
that it is in the power of governors of jails to order its infliction, and
those conversant with the ordinary practice of the magistracy in these
cases will be amazed at some of the opinions expressed in the con-
gress.
There is no person with an opinion carrying weight who would in
this country advocate the general use of corporal punishment. At the
same time there would be very few of practical experience but would
desire the retention of the power under the strictest safeguards, to be
applicable only to those exceptional and brutalized natures which will,
unfortunately, be sometimes found in all communities. It is believed,
and rightly believed, that the retention of the i)ower prevents m many
cases the necessity for its use. It has in several instances prev^ented
bloodshed and murder to my knowledge; and you will recollect state-
ments being made to the congress to this effect by Dr. Mouat, (the in-
spector-general of prisons in Bengal for many years.) and by your own
356 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
very able and excellent governor of Albany lienitentiary, General Pils-
bnry.
With regard to '• prison labor," there was very much misapprehen-
sion also. The i^revalent impression of speakers appeared to be that
the nse of the crank, shot-drill, and the treadwheel is compulsory by
statute.- This is not true; it is optional with the magistrates either to
adopt these forms of labor or others of a character to insure " hard
bodily labor." It had been decided by Parliament that before 1865 the
sentences of "hard labor" had not been carried out in our prisons, and
that so long as we maintained these sentences we must recognize a dis-
tinction between "penal" and "industrial" labor.
But the' government never contemplated "hard" or "penal" labor to
the bitter end. So far from this being the case, the home office trans-
mitted circulars to the "prison authorities," pointing out how it would
be possible, under the prisons act, 1865, to establish a prison system
which should lead from penal or hard labor, by a progressive classifica-
tion, to industrial labor and special employments..
Thus, by a well-regulated system, justice would have been satisfied,
a strong motive-power to amendment would have been created, and
"industrial labor," being associated with privilege in the minds of the
criminals, would be followed on liberation with pleasure and with profit.
A large number of " prison authorities" have, unfortunately, not
adopted the scheme foreshadowed in the government circular, and
allow the infliction of "hard labor" until the end of long sentences.
Nothing can be worse than such a course. But it would be entirely
wrong to assume that the government approves of such a practice,
as many speakers at the congress did assume, and termed it the "Eng-
lish prison system," for we have only to turn to the convict system,
which is under the entire control of the government, to learn its views
upon the subject of criminal treatment.
What is required is, that the central authority should institute a uni-
form system of prison treatment, working it out with the co-operation
of local action, and we must come to this ; as yet, there is not suthcient
power.
It is, 1 maintain, right for the public, and right for the criminal him-
self, that there should be suffering for sin, that the preliminary period
of imprisonment should be one of suffering, not dictated by vengeance,
but as an example toothers, and a wholesome discipline to the criminal.
Whether this period of suffering had better be one of strict isolation
or of " hard labor" is an open question. If hard-labor sentences could
be abolished, 1 should myself i)refer isolation. But in either case this
treatment must be followed by industrial labor, which must be earned
as a ])iivilege. If the whole sco])e of su<th a system is explaine<l to the
ciiminal, it is idle to assume that lie would consider ])enal labor as a
degradation. He would realize it as a nu'ans to an end, and would co-
operat(! with the system. This has been the case in jails which have a
])rogressive system, aiul it is not right to assume that because aimless
fienal labor in jails which have no progressive system is felt as a deg-
radation, it must he so under other and very ditferent circumstances.
it is im))<)rtant, all-imjiortant I would say, to keep i)enal or hard labor
perfectly distinct liom "industrial labor" in the mind of the criminal,
for it is nec<'Ksai y that he should dislii<e, the <»n«i as associated with pun-
ishment, and like the olhei- as assoeialcd with ]>rivileg<^ and anuMul-
merit. Jlis well-doing, on liberation, dejx'nds npon his feeling in this
respect ; and tliose wlio iHlvocafe " industi iai labor" at the beginning of
K<'nten<;es, without, making it the result of pi'ivilege, are associating it
PUNISHMENT AND SUFFERING NOT TO BE ELIMINATED. 357
in the mind of the criminal with his penal treatment, and giving him a
distaste for it on his liberation. Many years' experience has completely
satisfied me on this point, and many years' experience should have
pointed out the failure of merely industrial labor in England. Before
1865, it was quite an exception to find jails in which penal labor was
carried out — the results were so bad as to call for an examination by
a committee of the House of Lords, the report of which gave rise to the
prisons act, 1865. It is notorious that under the former .system vagrants
used to commit crime to pass the winter in jail, and this has not been
the case since penal labor, (which should not be unproductive,) has been
made compulsory in all jails.
I am satisfied that any attempt to eliminate suffering from punish-
ment would have such an effect upon public opinion as to very ma-
terially damage, if not entirely destroy, our reformatory and progres-
sive system. No one has a greater right to be heard upon this point
than myself, because I have carried the progressive system further than
any other person, even to a state of semi-freedom. But this would
haVe been impossible, had I not been able to carry public opinion with
me, and to show — as Count Cavour expressed it — that punishment
and suffering formed a portion of the system. Experience has also
shown me that such a course is an essential element in the treatment of
the criminal for his own sake.
It is certain that we have much yet to do. Our classification must
be perfected and still further extended. Our education in prisons must
be rendered more i)ractical, and made to bear more on the future career
of the criminal. Above all things, we must have the active interven-
tion of a central authority to compel a uniform system of prison disci-
pline. It is indefensible,' that the exercise of an unchecked local au-
thority should be allowed to result in a very different treatment of
criminals under the same sentences, for the whole community is affected
by this treatment. We cannot confine the action of criminals to their
own localities, and, therefore, it is the duty of the state to interfere.
With regard to sentences, also, some reform is needed. It is very
generally admitted that short sentences entirely preclude reformatory
treatment, for the time is not sufficiently long to develop it. If we
could abolish the intermediate sentences between six weeks and six
months, it would be far better for the criminal and the public. During
six weeks we could inflict isolation and a low diet for the whole term.
From six months and upward we could give beneficial effect to a pro-
gressive and reformatory system.
Although we have done much of late in establishing Prisoners' Aid
Societies,* we have still much more to do in this direction.
Our " registration of criminals and their supervision after liberation,"
has not ouiy proved a most efficient check on the criminal classes, but it
has enabled us to test, in the only practicable manner, the value of our
I)rison training. Under this test we have the most satisfactory results.
Criminal statistics depend for their value upon the basis on which
they are collected.
Any comparison of statistics between different countries, some col-
lected under a stringent system of registration, as in the United King-
dom, and others in a negativ^e form, would be worse than useless as
tests of prison system. By turning to my Irish official reports, it will
be noted that this was my argument against any comparison of results
between England and Ireland, for at that time " supervision and regis -
* There are now tliirty-six in England.
358 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
tratiou of criminals " had not been adopted in England. When 1 Ihijik
of those reports, and the papers 1 had to write, pleading (for it was
nothing short of pleading) for the adoption of the '^' mark " system of
classification, for police supervision, for the registration of habitual
criminals, for a reduction in the amount of gratuities, which were ex-
cessive, and for a better subdivision of large prisons, and realize what
has since been done, that is, the adoption of all the improvements men-
tioned, you will agree with me that I have reason to be thankful. It is
cheering also to find that the mark system has been introduced in some
of the jails in India and the colonies, and that Germany has introduced
a well-considered system of supervising criminals.
We must hope and believe that ])rogressive classifica,tion will every-
where culminate in " intermediate establishments." We can make al-
lowance for a certain timidity in its api)lication to men, but they will
come in time as a consequence of the progress which has been already
attained. Surely Lusk, with its sixteen years of successful results,,
cannot be ignored by thinking men, and that it will not be so ignored
in the United States, I feel most certain.
It cannot be doubted that we have much yet to do. But we must
stand fast to the principles which we have proved to be sound, and
build upon them ; we must not confine our operations to the treatment
of criminals, 5"0ung or old, inside and outside of the prisons ; and we
mnst place in industrial schools the children of criminals whose future
career cannot otherwise admit of doubt.
With my best wishes for your congress, believe me, dear Dr. AVines,.
yours, most sincerely,
WALTER CROFTON.
HiLLiNGDON, UXBRIDGE, December 24, 1872.
P. S. — I have just received the Transactions of the Prison Congress.
Not having seen a proof of any statement made by me, I already ob-
serve an error on a very important point, which I shall feel obliged by
your correcting at the Baltimore Congress. At page 470, 1 am reported
as stating that, for certain reasons, viz, the high earnings in free life in
England, it would be difficult to carry out intermediate prisons in this
country. This would be nonsense. AVhat I said was, that I had no
doubt the English prison authorities had this difficulty to contend with
in establishing intermediate prisons, viz, that several of the prisoners
(who are skilled) earn in some of the public works prisons 5s. or Gs. a
day, and that if they were removed to agricultural establishments, as at
Lusk, they would ])robably only earn 2.s'. Gd. a day. But I stated that,
to my mind, the moral gain would quite outweigli the financial result,
and 1 shall be glad if you will make this point very clear.
W. C.
4. PRErARATOliY SCHOOL FOR THE TRAINING OF OFFICERS CON-
NECTED ^VIT^I THE PENITENTIARY COLONY OF METTRAY, FRANCE :
Jlij ]\!. Pc Met::., Director of the Colony.
LTraiiRljition.]
Paris, Dcecmher 31, 1872.
Dear Sir : Agreeably to your re(iuest, 1 send you a word in relation
to the Preparatory Sciiool," (/'>w/e J'rrjiarafoire,) which 1 thought it
needful to found some time in advance of the re(!0 tion of the first in-
mates of the I'cnitentiary Agricultural (Jolony of Mettray, for the pur-
pose of training agents who should be competent to the duties of their
M. DE METZ ON THE EDUCATION OF PRISON OFFICERS. 359
high mission. Tliis, from the start, I thought absolutely essential, to
the end that I might advance, with firm and sure step, in a path then
altogether new and untried.
It is thirty-five years since the preparatory school was founded, and
time has but convinced me more and more of the advantages which
may be obtained by means of such an institution. Still more recently
I have had opportunity to observe how much force and energy this
school has given to the sentiments of the young men who have enjoyed
its advantages. When our territory was lately invaded by the enemy,
many of our under-ofticers promptly joined the ranks of the army. Those
who remained, perceiving the difficult position in which we found our-
selves from the insufficiency of our staff, and being fully aware of the
exhaustion of our financial resources, resulting from the crushing
requisitions of which we had been made the object, sent a deputation
to me to say : " We comprehend, sir, how great must be your embar-
rassment ; it will cost us no sacrifice to relieve you from it ; pay us half
of what we uow receive, and we will do double work." I accepted their
generous offer, and Mettray came victorious out of a trial so menacing
to the future of the colony. Would such devotion have been found in
men taken, as it were, hap-hazard, which is but too often the case in
penitentiary establishments, and who had not early imbibed the senti-
ment and formed the habit of duty ?
It has been said, with reason, that there is no good penitentiary system
without aid to discharged prisoners ; so there is no good penitentiary^
establishment, which does not create a nursery of agents from which to
recruit its staff. The men who are needed to implant the love of good-
ness in vicious natures are not improvised, and moral transformations
are obtained only through persevering efltbrts and an enlightened zeal.
May these considerations, which I venture to lay before you, serve to
convince you of my desire to justify a confidence which honors me. Be
pleased, sir, to receiv^e, in exchange, the assurance of my high esteem
and sincere sympathy.
Yours, from the depth of my heart,
DE METZ.
5. Susceptibility of cri-viinals to reformatory agencies :
Bij Henry James Anderson, 21. D.
Dear Sir : The board of managers of the Protectory desire me to
thank you for your invitation to theui to participate, through an appro-
priate delegation, in the good work proposed for the Prison Keform
Congress, soon to assemble at Baltimore.
As the liev. W^illiam Quinu, our advisory chaplain. Brother Teliow,
our rector and superintendent at Westchester, and the Hon. John E.
Develin, our legal adviser, have been delegated to represent us in the
congress, they will be i^repared to furnish all the detailed information
called for by your respective points of inquiry. I venture, however, of
my own responsibility, to state the result of some attention to your
eleventh point, viz : the susceptibility of criminals to reformatory
agencies.
It is essentially necessary in this matter, if we wish to avoid a painful
confusion of ideas, to discriminate in the very outset, at least two
classes of convicts — those whose crimes have, on the whole, been justly
defined by the verdict, and those whose delinquencies, if any, have been
very inadequately represented by the finding of the jury or the judge.
The penal discipline appropriate to the former class would be hurtful iu
360 NATIONAL PRISON REFOEM CONGRESS OF 1873.
the extreme if applied to the hitter, whether the verdict overstated, uji-
derstated, or misstated entirely the nature and magnitude of the offense.
I do not mean to say that it would be safe for the prison authorities to
question the correctness of the finding ; but it is nevertheless true that
a severity of treatment, promotive of the ends of justice iu the one
case, would be totally ineffectual, not to say ruinous, in its results in
the other. To save time?, I shall therefore confine these remarks to the
first class of convicts, those whose crimes shall have been found to con-
form iu the main M'ith the language of their condemnation.
It has been customar}^ to say that the end of punishment is twofold :
first, to reform the offender; secondly, to deter from a like offense the
thoughtless or the criminally inclined. The treatment of the trans-
gressor should keep a third end in view, the maintenance of a healthy
public opinion, not merely in regard to the gravity of the infractions of
the law, but equally so with respect to the necessity of fair dealing in
enforcing its provisions. All schemes for the reform of the criminal
would be more or less incomplete if these considerations are disre-
garded ; but as the eleventh inquiry concerns exclusively the reforma-
tion of the criminal, I shall confine myself to this single point.
What constitutes the criminal ? Crime implies either a false sense of
duly or disobedience to a true one. As against the state, it implies a
culpable ignorance of the law or a wilful breach of it. How far there
may be crime in obedience to the law or innocence in disobedience, it
would perhaps be irrelevant to inquire. To reform the criminal it is at
all events necessary that we should reform either his erroneous convic-
tions or his proclivity to disobey his right ones. Ordinarily speaking,
all true reform demands, on the part of the reformer, a disposition and
ability to accomplish one or other of these tasks; and on the part of
the transgressor a disposition and ability to look to the moral teacher
as his counselor and friend. No real amendment can be hoped for
where this relation is not substantially established. The criminal must
have for his reformer one whom he actuaUy trusts and respects, one whom
he believes means weU, even when the treatment seems severe. So true
is this that where this condition is wanting, no amount of benevolence
or zeal on the part of the instructor can make up for the defect. All
the devices of mere physical appliance, so idly relied upon as efficacious
and so often invoked as miraculous or infallible in their effects, are
worse than nothing where they work upon aji adverse u-ill. Iu the great
majority of cases they serve only to harden the offender, who is in fact
logical in his contempt of such expedients, as they are in no way calcu-
lated to remove his false beliefs or to inspire him with loyalty to true
ones. This is the secret of a trusted Jiu^ther's- inlluence. This, and
this alone, can exi)lain the acknowledged failure of so many ■\vell-meant
schemes of reform, though sustained l»y the subsidies of the wealthiest
states and the cheers of a world of blinded applauders. The unhappy
wanderer who has gone far astray must hclicre in his guide, «»r he will
not foMow iiim ; he will not even listen to him, aiul if the uinvelcomo
educator lesorts to tlu; us(^ of force and conuvs to grief in the encounter,
th(^ sympathy of the standerby is very sure to be on the side of the un-
persnaded one, irhnterer be the style of his resistance.
Jt would, how(,'ver, be wrong to say that punishment has not its uses,
or to assert that it can lU'ver tend to the true correction of the vicious
liabits of the olfendei'. J'hen where i)unishment but confirms tlie crim-
inal in his i)ervers(^nesH, it may be necessaiy as a ])art of i)enal disci-
l)line. Nevertheless, on every ()C(;asion of this sort the dillerenco is
immense in results i)et\\een tlu' system of eorreelion A\hieh is appre-
SUSCEPTIBILITY OF CRIMINALS TO REFORMATION. 361
heuded by its subjects as coming from a respected authority, and that
more popular off-band dealing with delinquents which regards the dis-
gust of the refractory impenitent as a plea.^ing feature in this less scru-
pulous method of conversion.
Where the punishers (justly or not, makes little difference) are re-
garded by the punished as belonging to an order, unsympathizing at
least, if not absolutely hostile or unfriendly, it is clear that, under such
circumstances, the subject of the most necessary discipline will miscon-
strue the motives and passionately resent the acts of his correctors.
And those who are intended to be warned by these corrections will find
all sense of their necessity lost in the sense of their injustice. On the
contrary, in reformatories where the inmates (whether for offenses com-
mitted before or after confinement) are assured, by evidence or tokens
with which they have been previously impressed and familiar, that they
are in the hands and subject to the discipline of friends, they will cheer-
fully submit to any measure of coercion deemed necessary, either for
their individual correction, or for the maintenance of the general order
of the house.
In offering these remarks I wish to be understood irrespectively of
the special merits of the class of reformers which may have previously
gained the confidence of the class to be reformed. For the same reason
which insists that the child is safer, ou the whole, with an indiscreet or
over-indulgent mother than with a guardian, however gifted, having no
acquired or natural affection for her ward, so it may be assumed that
the state will fail of securing the proper training of its delinquent chil-
dren, whether juvenile or adult, if it neglects to see that each class of
these unfortunates is committed to the care of their trusted spiritual
protectors. Whether this sympathetic tie be one of nationality, or lan-
guage, or manners, or religious convictions, or even of mere ritual forms,
there is more safety in consulting this affinity than in defying its re-
quirements. Of course there is nothing In this statement that would
oblige us to extend it to classes sanctioning or seconding the vices de-
signed to be reformed. The state has a right to require that the guard-
ians, while they show how much they love the persons of their wards,
are the determined enemies of their faults. And to this end, no class or
sect of reformators or protectors sTiouid ask to be relieved from giving
proof that they have ever made war against the special misdemeanors
which have consigned these special offenders to their care. Subject to
the strictest scrutiny in this regard, the cure of vices or vicious habits
of thought might be left (with hopes of success far exceeding what has
hitherto been achieved) to those who are prompted by love and enabled
by early intimate relations to cure the infirmities and amend the lives
of their pupils, and even to eradicate the false maxims and dangerous
theories of ricjit by which the criminal is ever attempting to justify his
fault.
I repeat again, I have no wish in this argument to present any claim
of superiority of method on the part of any school of reform. 1 know
of none so admittedly superior as to justify the placing of disaffected
subjects under its control. Least of all do I wish to see all classes of
transgressors, widely differing in their early prepossessions, brought, as
they often are, indiscriminately under the only prison reform party
which aspires to the exclusive favor of the state; I mean that party
(professedly against discriminations) which itself discriminates against
all influence derived from considerations of superhuman or supernatural
control.
Nor am I any more disposed to see violators of the law, with con-
6b 2 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
scieuces as divergent as their crimes, with inbred convictions, settle.d?
maxims, and cherished dehisions as various as their faces or their nameSy
driven helplessly to that most hopeless of moral disciplines, the hearing"
(under constant and angry protest) of the vapid platitudes of any short-
creeded and narrow-minded sect that plumes itself upon being no sect,
hut rather an enemy of all. Far better than this expedient (the most
distasteful and the most illogical of any yet tried) is the method of
classifying, as far as practicable, the erring children of crime, and of
bringing daily each separate class, even if in the main they live
together, under the influence of the teaching which alone they can
profitably understand. To say nothing of the generous riv^alry which
might thus be kindled and sustained, the real exi»erience of the world is
in its favor, for no success has as yet attended the novel experiment of
turning religion out of doors, or the other equally novel one of leaving to
the state the choice of a i:)rison creed, and the selection of a catechism
the best adapted to contradictory beliefs. If the state abandons, as it
ought to do, all attemiit to discriminate for or agaiust any religious teach-
ing in its reformatory institutions, let it apply the subsidies it now re-
quires in order that "no particular religion" shall be heard by those
who need it most, to the support of as many charities as will be raised
in its aid, by those who wish to reach the hearts and consciences of the
unfortunates of their own special faith.
Protestant or Catholic, Jew or Gentile, followers of a church which
knows no change, or adherents of views which have no continuity or
rest, let our prisoned children be educated by their own spiritual
mothers ; and where they are orphaned by the absence of any such ma-
ternal influence, in the name of mercy and humanity i^ermit them (if
young) to be taught as their natural guardians may prefer, and (if adult)
let them freely give their hearing where they give their hearts, without
restriction or dictation from the state, which has never ceased to re-
afiirm the American principle that, in such selections, the civil power has
neither competency nor jurisdiction, nor even a desire to interfere.
Witliigreat respect, I remain, vours, &c.,
HENRY J AS. ANDEHSON,
President New York Cath.-Frot. Ojflcej 20 Beade street,
New York^ January 18, 1873.
Kev. Dr. E. C. Wines,
No. 194 Broadway.
C. Duty of socjErv to persoiss arrested but not yet brought
TO trial:
JUj ^Vln. •!. Mullen, j;;r.'s6/i aycnfj Philadelphia.
riiiLADELPiiiA, January 11, 1873.
KEsrFCTKi) sill: Your favor of the circular informing me of the time
for tli<! assembling ot the Prison I Jcform Congress at Baltimore, on the
21st instant, has l)een receive<l, and tor which you will please accept my
thanks. 1 am sorry to state that circumstances beyond niy control will
prevent me from being present at the congress. 1 heartily ai)prove of
the object, and am <|nite sure that good results will follow the delibera-
tions and a<;tion of the (rongress. It cannot be otherwise. The united
efforts of the wise and good, ass(ind)hMl together for siu'h a nu^rciful ob-
ject, will certainly Ix^ altrndcd with divine blessing, that will not only
result in accomplisiilng nmch good for unfortnnat<'. piisoncMS who may
be l)eiictil<<l li\lhe action of the congress, but will ai-^o prove beuefi-
UNTRIED PRISONERS NEED ATTENTION. 363
cial to each member of the congress, who will esteem it a privilege to
participate iu so benevolent and God-like a work.
There is a subject which, I think, has not received that attention
which its importance demanded from the different conventions that have
heretofore met on prison reform. It is that of untried prisoners, whose
cases should, in every instance, be thoroughly investigated by a com-
petent prison agent before going to trial. Such investigations as have
been made by myself in our Philadelphia county prison have prevented
the conviction of thousands of persons, who might otherwise have been
condemned without such investigations. The friendly interference of
an intelligent and disinterested agent, in behalf of the accused, who
may be incarcerated, friendless and helpless, and without the means
of proving his innocence, in such cases, may result in securing his acquit-
tal, by supplying him with counsel to properly explain his case to the
court and have his witnesses present at the time of trial. All well-reg-
ulated prisons (in my judgment) should have such an agent, who should
make it his special business to do all in his power, in a proper manner, to
prevent improper convictions. That has been done effectually in the city
of Philadel]jhia, with the unqualified approval of our highest authorities,
from the governor down ; and this, too, without impairing the adminis-
tration of justice; as may be seen in the fact that our criminal judges
are united in affording the agent every facility, in his investigations and
labors, that is not inconsistent with justice. The court has assigned
the agent a position inside the bar, by the side of the district-attorney;
and in this way every opportunity is aftbrded the prisoner to show his
innocence. With these facilities, the agent has succeeded in causing the
liberation from prison of 32,474 persons within the last nineteen years.
Of this number 2,440 persons were liberated through me during the past
year. How many of these would have been convicted and caused to
undergo unnecessary suffering in prison without this friendly inter-
ference of the agent, is a question not easily answered. I have no doubt
but that there would have been many thousands convicted out of the
whole number, dating from the commencement of the agency. The
most of these cases were settled by the agent, with the consent of all
parties concerned, before the magistrate, without having been sent to
court, the charges having been shown to be so frivolous as to be un-
worthy of the attention of a jury. The saving in money to the tax-
payers of our city, in the release of these prisoners, that would have
been required to" be paid for food while waiting in prison until the
earliest period they could be tried, and what it would have cost to
ignore their bills, would have been $320,112.02. I give this information
to show the great amount of good that may be accomplished by the in-
terference of a judicious prison agent. In my judgment, you could not
do a better thing than to bring this subject prominently before the
prison congress for their consideration. It is a great thing to do all that
can be done to ameliorate the condition of convict prisoners ; but it is a
much greater thing (in my judgment) to prevent an innocent man from
becoming a convict and being made to suffer unjust imprisonment. The
press of business in our criminal courts, and the hurried manner in which
cases are necessarily disposed of in most instances, have been shown to
result in the conviction of many innocent persons, whose innocence I
have often succeeded in proving to the entire satisfaction of the court,
after their conviction. This resulted in the reconsideration of their sen-
tence and their honorable discharge from prison.
The great cause of crime amongst us is intemperance. Nine-tenths of all
who are committed to our prison are sent there either through iutemper-
364 NATIONAL PRISON KEFORM CONGRESS OF 1373.
ance in the prisoner or the person who caused him to be committed. If the
congress would take some action on this subject it M^ould no doubt be
attended with good results. Of the half million of persons who have been
committed to onr county pr'son within the last twenty years, there have
been about 500 committed for murder ; 700 additional for attempting to
murder; over 40.000 for assault and battery; and over 200,000 for
drunkenness. In nearly every case of murder, or where there was an
attempt to murder, the parties were intoxicated. Intoxicating liquor is
not only a great enemy to the church, but it is the great cause of suf-
fering to humanity. All conventions and all good citizens should speak
out against this crying evil, which has done so much toward filling our
prisons, almshouses, and lunatic asylums.
In conclusion, I would say that you are at liberty to make what use
of this letter you (in j^our judgment) may think best.
With the hope that the above information may be of some service, I
have the honor to be, dear sir. vours^ very respectfully,
WILLIAM J. MULLE:N.
7. Intemperance and ceijme:
By Aaron M. PoiveU, of Kew Yorl:
Among the various exciting causes of crime unquestionably the most
prolific is the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage. The testimony
to this effect is most abundant.
Lord Chief Justice Sir W. Bovill, an eminent English judge, writing
to the venerable archdeacon of Coventry on the relations of intemj^er-
ance to crime in Great Britain, says : "Amongst a large class of our
population intemperance in early life is the direct and immediate cause
of every kind of immorality, profligacy, and vice, and soon leads to the
commission of crime."
Another eminent English jurist. Lord Chief Baron Kelly, says: "I
can only express my belief, indeed I may say my conviction, that two-
thirds of the crimes which come before the courts of law in this coun-
try are occasioned chielly by intemperance."
Still another, the Eight Hon. Sir H. J. Keating, adds his weighty tes-
timony as follows : " I should suppose the testimony of every judge
upon the bench would be the same as to the fact that a very large pro-
portion of the crimes of violence brought before us are traceable, either
directly or indirectly, to the intemperate use of intoxicating liquors.
In my own experience of more than nine years upon the bench, corrob-
orated by a very long experience at the bar, I have no hesitation in
saying tliat such is the case. Some of the saddest cases with which
we have to deal are those in which men go into public houses respect-
able and resi)ected, and comic out felons."
Police INIagistrate Jiai'lies, tor the borougli of ]jiver])ool, says: "The
truth lias been so universally a(;kno\\iedged by all onr judges of the
superior conits, and by those Avho have ])resided over our sessions
courts, that 1 can add nothing to give weiglit to what has been taken
from tJK'm, viz, that drunkenness is llie cause of nine-tenths of the
crime wliicli exists in tiiis country. I van but confirm the sad con-
clusion. Perhajjs I hav(^ s(^en as much of it during the last nine or ten
years as any one."
Lord Cliicl" , Justice liovill adds to his own ilu^ following testimony,
which I (|uof(^ ffoni llu' oriicial i»resentincnt of a giand .jury of Leeds:
"The gr;irid jmv haxing again, as on many previous occasions, had
INTEMPERANCE AND CRIME. 365
tbeir attention called to the large number of crimes ot a serious charac-
ter whose origin is traceable to beer-houses, desire to express their
strong opinion that some alteration should be made in the existing sys-
tem of licensing, with a view to place beer-houses under such super-
vision as would check the evils now so grievously com[)laiued of."
An English prison chaplain says: "About five hundred prisoners are
annually admitted into tjiis prison, and I consider about four hundred
are the victims of intemperance."
Another says : " 1 have no doubt but that intemperance, directly or
indirectly, is the cause of nine-tenths of the committals to prison."
A governor of an English prison, writing of his charge, says: " Since
I have been appointed to the charge of this prison I have had under
my charge eight hundred and forty-one prisoners, and all the crimes
have been committed when under the intinence of intoxicating liquors,
with the exception of twenty-six."
While in attendance upon the international prison congress, held in
London in July, 1872, with this subject then upon my mind, I took
occasion to consult distinguished delegates who were present from
various countries, as also in journeying and sometimes visiting prisons
in a somewhat extended European tour, and the testimony of all showed
at least three-fourths, and often a much larger percentage of crime, to
be traceable to intoxicating liquors as a primary cause.
I will now cite briefly the testimony of a few competent witnesses as
to our experience in this country. And first I will quote from a docu-
ment published by authority of the legislature of the State of ]Sew York,
the twentieth annual report of the, executive committee of the prison
association of New York, the following : " There can be no doubt that
of all the pi\)ximate sources of crime the use of intoxicating liquors is
the most prolific and the most deadly. Of other causes it may be
said that they slay their thousands. Of this it must be said that
it slays its tens of thousands. The committee asked for the opinion
of the jail officers in nearly every county in the State as to the propor-
tion of commitments due either directly or indirectly to strong drink."
On a preceding page is the following: "Not less than sixty thousand
to seventy thousand human beings, men, women, and children, either
guilty or arrested on suspicion of being guilty of crime, pass every
year' through these institutions. The judgment of these jail officers
varied from two-thirds as the lowest estimate to nine-tenths as the
highest, and on reducing the several proportions to an average, seven-
eighths was the appalling result obtained."
The Eev. William M. Tiiayer, the secretary of the Massachusetts
Temperance Alliance, in his official report for 1872, referring to the
House of Industry, and other public institutions of Boston, says : " Of
the total commitments to the House of Industry, for the year ending
May 1, 1872 — amounting to 4,417 — all but 305 were for drunkenness,
and offenses caused by drink. The records of the public institutions of
the city show that 95 per cent, of all the arrests, of late, have been for
drunkenness, and crimes caused by intoxicating liquors."
Governor Washburne, of Massachusetts, still more recently, in his
message at the opening of the legislature now in session, in referring to
the beer-shops and the liquor question, says: " If we are to accept the
evidence of those who have had the most painful experience of the
miseries produced by these places, tbey are among the greatest ob-
stacles to the social and moral progress of the community. The testi-
mony of criminals of every degree is, that they were drawn, by
frequenting beer-houses, into oflenses and violations of law of which
3()6 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
they might otherwise have remained inuoceut. The wise and prudent
legislator will not cease his efforts for the diminution of crime till every
measure has been adopted which experience proves needful."
I might, if the limits which I propose for this paper permitted, quote
voluminously from the official records of the courts, State and munici-
pal, of almost every State in the Union, a mass of testimony, all bearing
upon this point, and showing throughout the plose connection between
intoxicating liquors and crime, 1 will venture to cite the recent experi-
ence of Boston in connection with the late destructive fire. In the
great emergency created by the fire, and with a large influx of thieves
from i^ew York, every precaution to prevent disorder and riot became
necessary. An edict of absolute prohibition was issued by the city
authorities against beer and all other intoxicating liquors, v;hich was
in force ten days. The chief of police of Boston, B. H. Savage, esq.,
thus testifies as to the diminution of arrests, even with the greatly
increased liability to criminal disorder, during the ten days of prohibi-
tion. He says: "For the ten days preceding the order, viz, from
November 2 to November 11, inclusive, the records show the whole
number of arrests to be 1,1G9. For the ten days in which the order was
in force, viz, from November 12 to November 21, inclusive, the records
show the whole number of arrests to be G75."
In Massachusetts, at the present time, the liquor traffic is carried on
chiefly in what are called " beer-shops," the towns voting annually upon
the proposition whether they will or will not authorize the sale of beer.
As the mercury in the thermometer indicates the rising or falling tem-
perature, so do the court-records of these towns as sensitively indicate
the state of the liquor traffic. It is understood that those who know
how to say beer with the right inflection can obtain almos^any kind of
liquor desired at these licensed shops. I will cite but a single illustra-
tion. " In 1S71 the city of Taunton voted 'No beer.' The number of
arrests for drunkenness from May 1 to Deceujber 31, 1S71, was 290. In
1872 the city voted in favor of the sale of beer, &c. The number of ar-
rests for drunkenness from May 1 to December 31, 1872, was 492, being
an increase over the previous year of 202, or about 70 per cenV^
Governor Dix, of the State of New York, in his recent message to the
legislature now in session, calls attention to the alarming prevalence of
crime in the city of New York as follows: " The alarming increase in
frequency of the crime of murder in the city and its environs demands
your most serious consideration. Scarcely a day i)asses without wit-
nessing a brutal, and in many instances a fatal assault, upon the persons
of unolfending individuals, usually in drinking saloons."
Itowhunl Burr, escp, for nearly twenty years a magistrate at Toronto,
stated to the Canadian ])arliament " that nine-tenths of the male ])ris-
oners and ninteentwentieths of the female are sent to Jail by intoxicjat-
ing li(pu)rs. Jn four years there were 2r>,()00 ]>risoiuM\s in Canadian Jails,
of whom 22,000 owed their imprisonment to drinking habits."
I will only add in the way of testimony that 1 uiulcrstand the very
recent message of the mayor of this (;ity of Baltimoic enumerates an
aggregate of some 10,000 arrests for the past year, about 8,000 of which
are to be asciilx'd, directly or i!idirectl\, to the usu of intoxicating
lirpiors.
J^o we seek llie ]»^e^•ention of crime ' Would we e\t<'nd due protec-
tion and (mcouragenu'nt to discharged i)risonersi? If so, we have a
twofold duty : first, to jirotect the weak from unnecessary temptation
by a wise policy of legislation ; and, 8«'cond, to employ the ministrations
of genuine, practical icligion.
PRISON REFORM IN PENNSYLVANIA. 367
If goverumeut may arrest and restrain the criminal, it may interpose
its beneficent authority to remove palpably demoralizing agencies; it
may close the wide-open doors of temptation. If it may blow up and
destroy blocks of magniiicent buildings to save a city from conflagration,
it may not only organize and sustain a vigorous tire-department, but
also pi'obibit altogether a particularly dangerous fire-inviting architecture.
That is a poor type of statesmanship, scarcely deserving the name,
which deals only with results, and does not at the same time look at
and give due consideration to their producing causes. None should be
permitted to prosecute a traffic for the sake of gain by pandering to the
vices and inflaming the passions of those who are weak or criminally
inclined. As infected ships are quarantined in the interest of the pub-
lic health, so must be the grog-shops and drinking-places for the pro-
tection of the weak against undue temptation, as well as society against
the depredations they may be expected otherwise to commit.
Most important of all is the religious obligation imposed by the high
ideal of Christianity toward those who have gone astray and who are
most exposed to wrong-doing. In the administration of prison disci-
pline it prompts tojustice, firmness, and kindness judiciously blended; in
caring for discharged prisoners, it prompts to extend the helping hand to
those sorely needing assistance in taking the first step aright in returning
again to society from their incarceration ; but especially does it exact
of us all, in the presence of such responsibilities, right precept and ex-
ample. Is strong drink the besetting sin of the criminal classes "? Does
it cause our brother or sister to offend ? Then is it our religious duty
to do what w^e may, each in our own way and sphere of activity, to dis*
courage the drinking usages of society. How frequent and how sad
are the falls from high social position to the deepest depths of misery
and crime. How many households with haunting skeletons of the
worse than murdered victims of the drink-demon. Especially should
there be thoughtful consideration of the young. To them, and to all, we
should exemplify and teach temperance, truthfulness, and brotherly
kindness, and thus build upon the solid foundation, forestall crime, and
inaugurate the era of a true Christian civilization.
8. Prison reform in Pennsylvania.
The board of public charities of Pennsylvania, through its president,
the Hon. George L. Harrison, submitted to the congress a summary of
views and suggestions contained in its report for 1872. This paper,
slightly condensed, is as follows :
It states the opinion that, in dealing with crime, iireventive rather
than curative measures ought to be mainly relied upon, among which it
enumerates the following :
1. A thorough system of universal education,
2. Special and effective agencies for the care of truant, vagrant, neg-
lected, and overtasked children.
3. A much larger provision of i-eformatory schools and houses of cor-
rection for the various grades of juvenile otienders.
4. Provision for the proper care of the helpless and pauper classes.
5. Effective laws for the suppression of intemperance.
6. Adequate provision for the restraint and employment of all idle
vagrants.
7. Provision, in the county and municipal prisons, for the separate
treatment of vagrants, witnesses, and_persons charged with crime, as
well as convicts.
368 NATIONAL PEISON EEFOEM CONGRESS OF 1873.
The remedial system, or prison discipline proper, should be based on
the fundamental principle of reformation throuo-h punishment, and not
of punishment as an end. Such a system should contain, among others,
the following features :
1. Sufficient provision for the separate confinement of each prisoner.
2. After a suitable period of separate continement and the' perform-
ance of certain prescribed tasks, provision should be made for the em-
ployment of the convicts in voluntary productive labor, as a means of
moral improvement and a preparation for their future self-support.
3. Unless solitary labor should be preferred by the convicts, this labor
to be performed in small companies or families, properly selected, the
members having free intercourse together, and being mutually respon-
sible for each other's conduct.
4. The proceeds of the labor to be appropriated : a. To defray the
current expenses of the convict, and to indemnify the State, h. To con-
tribute to the support of the convict's family, if necessary, c. To the
convict himself, to go partly to form a reserve fund against the time of
his release, and to be used partly as he may choose for procuring pres-
ent alleviations and comforts.
5. Instruction should be given to all the convicts as they may need :
a. In some trade or handicraft, h. In the elements of learning and
knowledge, e. In the principles and practice of morality and religion.
6. Considerate and humane treatment to be emphatically insisted on,
using, as far as possible, moral influence instead of physical force, and
endeavoring, above all things, to develop the self-respect and man-
hood of the prisoners.
7. A careful classification of the prisoners to be constantly kei)t up,
and from time to time corrected — a classification based not upon any
extraneous or arbitrary considerations, but upon character and conduct.
8. Provision to be made for securing a corps of judicious and, event-
ually, experienced prison keepers, so as to render the profession of prison-
keeper honorable and respected, to which end special schools for their
education and training should be established.
9. The substitution of meritorious conduct and probable reformation
for mere lapse of time, as the ground of final discharge; that is to
say, until convicts have earned their release by such evidence of good
conduct and habits as will rationally imply their permanent reforma-
tion.
10. There should be, in the case of each convict, a certain time-
sentence, graduated according to his offense, but always long enough
to give full opportunity for reformatory ])rocesses to take efiect.
[The board is aware that the ideal i>erfection of the ])lan w:hich
makes the discharge of every prisoner dependent on his reformation,
would require too great a revolution in legal and popular ideas to be as
yet expected or asked for.]
11. A system of marks to be instituted which, under fixed rules, may
be a guide lor (;lassi(i(;ation and rewards, as well as for the final judg-
ment; having a debit as well as a credit side, and providing for loss of
standing and class, or even for remanding to the cell, in case of mis-
conduct.
12. Intermediate pri.sons to be provided, where the prisoners, still re-
maining undischarged, may be filially tested, by being trusted with a
great degree of liberly, and hift in large measure to control themselves,
un(h.'r most ol the ordinary temptations of free life, yet liable, for un-
faithtnliiess, misconduct, or altem])ted escape, to be degraded and sent
back to Ix'^^in tlieii' work over again.
REFORMATORY POWER OF HOPE. 369
13. Refuges to be provided for released prisoners, to facilitate their
return to society, wliere they can have, at their own expense, lodging,
maintenance, and means of employment, until they can procure em-
ployment elsewhere.
The board express the opinion that such a system would, as a mat-
ter of course, require unity of control. All the prisons and houses of
detention in a State, of whatever kind or class, should be placed under
the supervision and general direction of one head or of one board of
managers, representing the authority of the State. In respect to all
matters of prison construction and prison discipline, the county and
municipal authorities should be required to act under direction and
control of this central and supreme authority.
9. Hope the great eefoemer :
By Eon. B. F. Butler.
My Dear Sir : I have but this moment got round to the matter of
your inquiry among other more urgent duties. You desire me to state
to you the method by which 1 conducted the military prisons and gov-
erned the prisoners during my command of the Department of Virginia
and North Carolina, in 18G4.
First thanking you for the compliment of commendation of the man-
ner of managing prisoners, I grieve that I shall be unable, being entirely
without the statistical details of the subject, to give you any exact sta-
tistics. I will try, however, to state, in a manner that will be understood,
the plan upon which perfect discii)line was enforced.
When I took command in November,.18G3, at Fortress Monroe, I found
a large number of deserters, thieves, and bad crimiuals of the Army,
sentenced by court-martial to hard labor for longer or shorter periods.
They were confiued in an old naval depot, known as Fort Norfolk, and
their hard labor seemed to be, substantially, sleeping all day and play-
ing cards all night; so that the sentence to hard labor at Fort Norfolk
was rather a favorite method of passing their term of enlistment by the
wicked and perverse of the army; both maybe comprehended under
the name of " shirks." I looked around for some suitable place for con-
finement at hard labor, but found none. I have a Yankee horror of what
is known as the "chain-gang," and therefore did not like to work these
men chained together. 1 was told that it was impossible to make them
work without paying them wages. Upon that I doubted. I agreed that
it was impossible to make men work to any efiect without fear of the
lash or other punishment, or the hope of some reward. I therefore sent
to Massachusetts and obtained some of our Massachusetts correction-
uniforms, which consist of a gray and black suit, half and half, cut down
the center, and a scarlet cap. I clothed my prisoners in this uniform,
which, as you see, was very distinctive. I put them under the charge
of the proper otficer and a superintendent, who had at first some men
to guard them, and put them to work in the spring in cleaning up the
streets, and alleys, and lanes of the city of Norfolk, much of it very
offensive and troublesome work. I gave those that worked in the midst
of nauseous effluvia and in unhealthy situations a ration of whisky ;
I gave all that used it a ration of tobacco. I saw that they were well
fed with wholesome and nourishing provisions. They were taken to
their cells at night to sleep, and, after a day's work of ten hours, they
were quite ready to do so. 1 then directed the superintendent to keep a
roll of merit of the men, of which they were informed, and empowered
H. Ex. 185 24
370 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF ]&7:).
him to recommeiul me to have stricken off from the senteuce not ex-
ceeding' ten days in each month, according to the diligence and steadi-
ness with which men performed their duty ; and in cases of great merit
a larger portion of tlie specified time of pnnishment might be remitted.
In case of refractoriness, solitary confinement, loss of the ration of
tobacco, and bread and water, were the i)uuishment.
The seqnence — and perhaps I may say the consequence — of this was,
that a better gang of laborers, more orderly and more quiet, 1 have never
known. I never lost one by running away; I never had but one attempt
to get away, and he failed; and after being shut up a week he begged
so abjectly and persistently to be allowed to take his place in the work-
ing gang again that.it was i^ermitted; aud he finally got 33^ per cent,
of his time of punishment remitted for good conduct. I even took the
gang out into the swamps on the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal to
repair a break, and although the country was overflowed, I only lost one
there, and am uncertain to this day whether he deserted or was drowned.
The prisoners under this system did work which, at any reasonable
price — aud an account was kept with the city of Norfolk of what they
did do at a price — would have several times compensated for the cost of
their keep. I insisted upon three things: perfect cleanliness and purity
in their cells and places of sleep during the night; nutritious and whole-
some food three times a day, viz, before they went out, at noon, and
after they came back ; and diligent, industrious, hard labor of ten hours
each day, with a reward for labor that was meritorious by remitting a
portion of the punishment.
I have long thought that the system of labor in our prisons, where
the laborer had no hope and nothing to labor for, was upon a wrong
principle. My acquaintance with.prisoners as a criminal lawyer taught
me so much. I had an opportunity to try a different theory aud availed
myself of it, and that is all.
Keuewing, my dear sir, my assurances of highest regard and respect,
I am, vours trulv,
BEXJ. r. BUTLEE.
Dr. Wines.
10. the final cause of criminal legislation as affecting
modes of punishment :
By James Freeman Clarice, D. D.
I. "Whatever may be thought of the study of final causes in science, it
is certain that, in regard to all social questions, it is very useful to in-
quire often : What institutions are for i? What is the i)uri)ose of such
and such customs ? What is the end ])roi)osed by this or that course
of action l These questions are the surest tests to apply to human in-
stitutions in order to learn wlu^ther they are working well or have lallen
into ruts, so that things are done to-day because they were done yester-
day. If 1 wish to ai)i)ly a shaip test to any social arrangement — to
a college, a chur(;h, a law, a society, a lu)si)ital, «&c., tlie best thing to
do is to ask, (1.) What is it for ? What is its aim and end i And then,
(2.) Is it a(;coiiq)lishing that pni'pose, or is it not ?
II. In regard to criminal legislation, several different objects have
been assumed. It is important, thcireforc, to ask what are the true ones,
an<l, among these, which are the most im|)oitant i)ur})oses ? Thus crim-
inal Icgishition is som('tim(\s regarded as jxMial or i)unitive. Its objec
is sui»]K)Sfd to ]»(' to i»miish tlic criminal foi- his guilt. Again, it is
SUPREME AIM OF CRIMINAL LEGISLATION. 371
thought to be reformatory. Its object, accortliDg to this view, is to im-
prove tlie morals of the man who has committed a crime. Lastly, the
purpose of these hxws is considered to be to protect the community.
They are to prevent crime by making it dangerous and disagreeable iu
its consequences. Let us consider these three supposed purposes of
criminal legislation, and find which is the truest and most important.
III. If the object of criminal legislation is to ininhh crime, we uat-
urally ask, what right has society to punish, and how is it able to do so?
" Vengeance is mine, I will repay," says the Almighty. Oidy God cau
punish justly, for only God can read the heart.
If God has delegated to society the right to punish, he must also
have giveu the power. But evidently society has not the power to in-
flict just punishment on guilt, since it cannot discern motives nor allow
for circumstances. It is obliged to judge the outward action mainly;
and its judgments in a moral sense must always be very imperfect.
Therefore, though the notion of a just retribution may enter into the
idea of criminal legislation, it cannot be its main object.
The argument for punitive legislation has been stated strongly by
Victor Cousin, in his notes to the Gorgias of Plato. He says, " Jus-
tice is the true foundation of punishment; personal and social utility
only a consequence. In the intelligence, the idea of punishment corre-
sponds to that of injustice, and when the injustice has been committed
in the social sphere, the punishment ought to be inflicted by society.
Punishment is not junt because it is iisefulj but it is useful because it is
jwst"
No doubt it is true that punishment expresses the moral indignation of
the community against crime, and this is a healthy and useful result
of punishment. It is good for the criminal to feel that the punishment
he suffers finds an echo in the ])ublic conscience. Nevertheless, human
punishments are so very imperfectly adapted to degrees of guilt, that
if moral retribution were regarded as their main object, they could
hardly be sustained. It can only be a secondary purpose.
IV. Is, then, the main object of punishment the reform of the offender!
But what right has society to assume to itself the moral education of
certain persons and sequester them for that purpose, depriving them of
their liberty ? Is it because they have shown themselves by their con-
duct to be in great need of improvement f But others need it also, in
' a less degree ; and those whose outward actions have not been so offen-
sive to society may, iu their inward character, need reform much more.
If the object of penal legislation is to reform the criminal, why select
one class of offenses only '? Why not imprison the covetous, selfish, un-
truthful, proud, vain, licentious ? They need reform, surely, as much
as do thieves and robbers? It is evident, therefore, that the moral im-
provement of the criminal can only be a secondary object of punishment.
V. The jiroper end of all human laws is declared by publicists to be
the promotion of the temporal well-being of the couimuuity. It is also
often stated that the proper end of criminal law is the prevention of in-
juries by the terror of punishment. But since crime may be prevented
in other ways, a better statement would be that " The object of criminal
law is the ])revention of crime." This definition excludes the notion of
liunishiug the criminal, and also that of reforming him, except so far as
his punishment or his reformation may conduce to the protection of
society. These two purposes become secondary and ancillary. Thus
the question is simplified and put on a practical basis.
VI. We assume, then, that the object of the criminal law is the pro-
tection of the community, by preventing crime. That the community
372 NATIONAL PRISON EEFOKM CONGRESS OF 1873.
lias a right to7?««iis7i guilt may be questioued. That it has a right to
select some bad people to reform may be doubtful. But no one can
deny that it has a right to protect itself against injury. If criminal
legislation has this for its avo\Yed object, it rests on a perfectly firm
foundation.
Now, penalties inflicted on crime may ]>rotect the community in sev-
eral ways. 1. By fear of suifering, which inevents the commission of
crime. 2. By the actnal restraint of the criminal, which disables him
from committing crime. 3. By the education of the conscience through
the act of public justice. 4. By the reform of the criminal. We will
consider them in order.
yir. Criminal law in its early stages lays most stress on terrific pun-
ishments. Its laws are written in blood. The death-penalty is applied
to numerous crimes. The prisons are places of torture, and any attemi)t
to alleviate the sufferings of the prisoner is regarded as rose-water senti-
mentalism. Wright, in his "Homes of Other Days," describes the English
prisons after the Norman conquest thus : " Imprisonment, even before
trial, was made frightfully cruel ; the dungeons were filthy holes, in
which loathsome reptiles were bred, and the prisoners were insufficiently
fed, and sometimesstripped naked." In the middleages,he adds: "The
gallows and the wheel were so commonly used as to be continuallj"
before ])eople's eyes. Every town, every abbey, and almost every ma-
norial lord had the right of hanging, and a gallows or tree, with a man
hanging on it, was so frequent as to be almost considered a part of every
landscape."
But as society advances these pnnishments appear shocking to the
community, and it is found that severity in punishment leads to impu-
nity. When punishments are more severe than the public sentiment
api)roves, they are not inflicted, and the criminal escapes all punish-
ment. One of the accepted maxims, therefore, of modern criminal juris-
])rudeDce is, " Crime is not prevented by the severity but by the cer-
tainty of punishment."
VIII. When criminals are in prisoji they cannot commit crime, and
the community is thus protected by any kind of incarceration ; but
most terms of imprisonment are too short to do much good in this way.
Short imprisonments also interfere with the reforn)ation of the prisoner.
II(! is thinking more of getting out than of reform ; he has no time in
prison to break np bad habits, or form good ones ; he has no time to
learn a trade, or toilet any e<lncation, and so he usually goes out as bad
as he came in, and is prepared to begin innnediately a new career of
<-rime. The ]>rotection of the community, therefore, seems to require
that instead of short terms there should be substituted a sentence of
indefinite confinement, the terniination of which should depend on the
Ix'iiavior of the i)risoner. An ignorant prisoner might be sentenced
until he should have mastered a tiadeand acquired the rudiments of edu-
ciition. I'i.vcd terms of inqtrisonment of different duration haveproba-
l»ly conn; IVom the notion that the chief end of penalty is to i)unish
guilt. Such a (;rime, it is thought, deserves ten years' im[)risoumeut ;
.sncli anolliei- merits only Wxi^] another only six months, «S:c. JUit if the
pill pose of iuqti isoning crimiuids is to protect society, tliey ought not
to !)(' set free nut 11 tlieyhav(^ forincd such new habits as will make it
jtr(il)ai)i(! that they will lead honest and industrious lives.
IX. It is no doubt true that a i)ublic trial and conviction, if conducted
]»ro|»erly, lends to educate the gen(!ral conscience. J>ut tliis result de-
])ends on the ])ublic belief that the iiniocent man will be generally ac-
<|iiitfe(l ;nid the guilty (;on<lemn<'d. Justice becomes a farce when great
SUPREME AIM OF CIJIMIXAL LEGISLATION, 373
criminals, known of nil men to be j^uilty, can readily esca|)<i pnni.sli,
meut by the help of ablo lawyer.s, slcillfal bribery, absurd forms of law-
or iniquitous judges. Hence criminal legislation should aim at embody-
ing the results of the largest experience and wisest study, and hence,
also, the pardoning power of the executive should be limited.
X. Society is ])rotected by the reform of the criminal.. It is only on
this ground that we can properly advocate such measures as will lead
to this result. But it is evident that, if no criminal is allowed to leave
prison except \vhen he has become an lionest man, the most fruitful
source of crime would be stopped up. If a man. come from prison uu-
reformed, he comes out hardened, and becomes the most daring leader
in outrages on the public peace..
Now the opportunities of reforming a criminal while in prison are
very great if they are rightly used. He is absolutely separated from
temptation, from evil companions, and bad influences. He is placed in
a comparative solitude, where, if ever, he must reflect on himself and
his conduct. We have the power of shutting out all bad influences,
and letting all good ones in. We can give him the industrial education
and intellectual education in which the majority of criminals are defi-
cient. And finally, when he leaves the i)risou, he comes out read^^ to
pursue- some honest trade, and to commence a new mode of life.
XI. All these ends are attained 1)y what is commonly called the
*' Irish system." Under this plan a prisoner is sentenced for an indefi-
nite period, the duration of which he can greatly determine by his own
good conduct. There are graded prisons, rising from those where there
are the least liberty and the greatest hardship, to those in which are
the most liberty and the least hardship. The i^risoner, as his conduct is
good, is gradually transferred from the lower to the higher prison, and
thus is under the influence of hope no less than that of fear. He can-
not leave the prison regularly, except by graduating from the highest
class, and so coming out as a man proved to be a reformed man, not
by plausible speeches, but by a long course of good behavior. Leaving
the prison thus, known to be a reformed man, he has no difficulty in
finding employment, and the taint of the prison does not adhere to him,
to interfere with his attempts at earning an honest living. He finds
work easily, and starts with a good standing in society.
XII. Therefore, if we consider the protection of society as the final
cause of prison legislation, we are led directly to this system of "Irish
prisons," as best accomplishing the end. Of course we include in this
term all the methods which belong to this general plan. We advocate
the reform of the prisoner, not in the interest of philanthropy or religion,
but in that of society. We reform the prisoner in order to protect so-
ciety. We abolish cruel i)unishments in order to protect society. We
introduce hope into the prison to protect society. And in doing this,
there is no danger that the prison will become too attractive; for this
plan does not diminish restraint, but rather increases it; and wnth this
plan naturally belong more certainty of conviction, less hope of pardon,
and no prospect of leaving the prison except by genuine and demon-
strated repentance and reformation. *
374 national prison reform congress of 1h73.
11. Thoughts on prison treat:ment:
By Alfred E. Love.
Philadelphia, Flrstmonth 20, 1873.
To the Xational Prison Association of the United States in convention at
Baltimore :
Respected Friends : I rejoice that you are liolding a convention for
tlie consideration of the highly important subjects connected with prison
discipline. I thank you for your invitation, and regret that my engage-
ments are such as to prevent my accepting.
For fifteen years I have been a visitor of our Eastern penitentiary,
and am satisfied that kind and humane treatment of prisoners is the
best.
Treat crime as a disease and the criminal as a patient. Hence, room,
light, air, and judicious labor. Banish the idea of mere punishment
and a machinery system of treatment. Study dispositions and graduate
the penalties and ])remiums.
Start with the idea that those in prison are not the only criminals,
the difference between detected and undetected criminality being very
slight. Ai)peal to the manhood and womanhood of your prisoners, and
do nothing to break the spirit of self-respect. Place first the refor-
mation of the criminal; secondly, protection of the community; and,
thirdly, opportunity for restitution for the wrong committed. Abolish
all time sentences. As we would prescribe for a sick person until he
Avas restored, and cease giving medicine to one who has recovered, so
should we release the prisoner when reformed and safe to go abroad, and
withhold discharge when not cured and when unsafe to be out. As it
is now, the unreformed can claim discharge when the time has expired,
and they are almost certain to return to their criminal x^ursuits ; w^hile,
on the other hand, the law holds the penitent and reformed long after
'they may be worthy of another trial.
If it is objected and you say that this will cause hypocrisy, I reply, if
the prisoner should be discharged after a committee had watched and
tested his conduct, under the plea of reformation, it will be an evidence
that \t inxys to he fjood, and if he go on all his life pretending to be good,
the community will be safe and his pretense become a reality.
3Iay you feel drawn to devote some time to the very imi)ortant work
preceding lyrison life. It is not enough to care for the prisoner \\hile in
])rison, nor, indeed, after his discharge ; we must have a constant care to
prevent jirisoners being made. Take care of the erring before the error
leads to i)rison.
Witli my kindest regards, yours, cordially,
ALPllKD ir. J.OVE.
11!. A NOiJLE testimony.
L'llrr fnna I'rr. C. C. Faote.
Dj'/rKoir, ,l((uHi(r}i 11, J 873.
Mv I)i;.\!r I''imi;m) am) IWjornioii : I am in i-eceipt of your invitation
to atternl tli<' I'risou IJcfoiju Congress at Jjaltimore, for which J thank
vou.
PENAL TREATMENT A NOBLE TESTIMONY. 375
What a glorious congress we had at Cincinnati. I^Iay yours at Balti-
more excel it in glory. How happy should 1 be to l)e with you. But
my labors for this world are apparently finished. For the past nine
months I have been a helpless invalid. I put my very life's blood into
my four years' chaphnncy in the Detroit house of correction. Blessed
years of precious fruit and fatal toil ! The field was so constantly
whitened for the harvest that it seemed impossible to avoid over-labor.
I know of no i)lace so hopeful for winning men and women back to the
knowledge and service of God as a properly conducted prison.
May lieaven hasten the day wheu the radical reformation of unfortu-
nate criminals shall be the first and highest aim of our prisons, rather
than the saving to the community of a few paltry dollars. " This," said
the great Teacher, " ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other
undone."
With high esteem and true affection, yours, &C.,
C. C. FOOTE.
Eev. E. C. Wine:s, D. D.
IV. -REPORTS OX THE PENAL, REFORMATORY, AND PRE-
VENT IVB INSTITUTIONS OF STATES AND TERRITORIES.
1. California.
By Ece. James Wood worth, (•orrespondinrj secretary of the California Prison Commission.
The extreme length of the State of California is about eight hundred
miles, and the width from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and
forty miles, with a coast of nearly one thousand miles. The number of
inhabitants is probably over 600,000. Though young in years, with a
small population in proportion to its size, yet having a water-front, with
so vast an extent of country lying back of it, and looking out, through the/
Golden Gate, directly across the sea, to Japan, China, India, and Aus-
tralia, with its fertile soil, its wondrous climate, and its inexhaustible
stores of mineral wealth, California is destined, at no distant day, to
equal in importance, commercially and otherwise, the most favored States
of the American Union. This importance will extend to social and
moral, as well as material, interests.
• Such being the position and prospective power of California, her influ-
ence will extend over the whole of what is known as the Pacific coast,
embracing nearly all the country lying west of the Rocky Mountains. Of
this entire territory, California must take the lead. The character of her
institutions, including those which look to the prevention and repression
of crime, must, to a great extent, impress itself upon the institutions of
her neighbors. This is already becoming apparent; unpleasantly so, too,
for while endeavoring to pattern after us, a want of due discrimination
causes them to copj* our defects as well as oUr excellencies.
This State was at first little more than the mere camping-ground of
adventurers, who had come here only for a temporary sojourn. The
consequence was that almost everything was temporary in its character,
being designed merely to meet the needs of the actual present, with
little thought or regard to what should be afterwards. In hardly any-
thing was this more apparent than in the provisions for punishing crime,
so that before any regular system had been thought of, the plan adopted
had become so expanded that it was difficult to change it.
376 NATIONAL PRISON liEFOKM CONGRESS OF 1873.
Nevertheless, important reforms have already been iuaug-uratet]. Our
criminal laws and judicial 'system Lave been greatly imprdved. Our
penal and civil codes, the result of four years' labor by a cou) mission ap-
pointed to prepare them, have already received high praise from jurists
fully competent to form a judgment of their merits.
Our penal institutions are a state prison, a jail in each of the fifty counties
into which the State is divided, a city prison and jail in San Francisco,
and station-houses or lock-ups in the principal cities. There is no central
or general authority, charged with the administration of our entire
prison system. The state prison, the most important of our penal estab-
lishments, is managed by a board of directors, consisting of the gov-
ernor, the lieutenant-governor, and the secretary of state, all constituted
directors by their ofiice. The board has no official connection with any
other penal or reformatory institution in the State. The members are all
elected at the same time for four years; and, as a matter of course, their
terms of ofiice expire together. Each receives as state-prison director
$75 per month. The law gives the directors full power to create and fill
ofiices, to fix the salaries of officers, to remove them at pleasure, to let
the labor of the convicts to contractors, and, in short, to do whatever
they may think necessary or expedient for the good of the institution.
These powers are not sufi:ered to rust for want of use. They are exer-
cised to the fullest extent, so that an entire change of the prison stafi
follows every change in the political complexion of the board.
Though the lieutenant-governor is not made ex-officio warden by the
statute, yet, as no salary is attached to the office to which he is elected,
and as his duties as president of the senate occupy but a fraction of his
time, the custom of making him warden, or "resident director," has
become a settled one ; so that an election to one office is virtually an
election to the other. This the law indirectly contemplates by provid-
ing that he shall be " paid the sum of ten dollars per day for each day's
services rendered for the performance of any duty at the state prison."
In the early history of the State the convicts were, for a short time,
kept in a hulk known as the "prison brig." As the number increased
and additional accommodations were needed, a prisou building was
erected. The security of the convicts being at that time considered the
main thing, tlie prison was built between two ranges of hills, aftbrding
excellent facilities for guarding the inmates by means of cannon planted
upon them, which swept the entire grounds. "^ The only disadvantage of
this locality is that it prevents any extension in the direction of the
hills, and con)i)els every eidargement to be made on a line ])arallel to
them, ^^'ith this exception, a more desirable site could hardly have been
selected. The prison originally consisted of one stone building, ISO feet
long by 28 wide, and one story high. It is said to have contained at first
but one room, into which were crowded three hundred i)risoners. It
has since been divided into rooms and another story added. Other
cell-buildings, workshops, olficjcs, &c., Inive been constructed from time
to tiuu;, but so irregularly tiiat the iiddilioiis hav(^ made it amass of
l)at('h-worU,
The. j)risi)n is situated at I'oint San (^^uentin, twelve miles north of
San Fiancisco, on an indentation of tlie l)ay of th;it name, and within
three miles of the ])()puhir watering i)l;iee of S;in Kiifael. The location
is both hcidthy and beautiful. It is surrounded by someof the finest
scenei-y of the. coast, forming a ])anoi-aiua of iar(^ magnificence, the value
of which, in its elevat ing and jc^fining inlluences even upon men who
Jire imprisoned as felons, can hardly be. (exaggerated. 'J'he prison i)rem-
ises einin-acc ahout one hundred and thirty acres, most of the land, how-
PENAL AND REFORMATORY INSTITUTIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 377
ever, being of little value except for grazing-. The prison grounds proper
are surrouiuled by a wall 2,5 feet high, forming an inclosure of some six
acres. Within this inclosure, besides a great number of other structures,
there are three prison buildings, one of which has common dormitories.
The other two have an aggregate of I'our hundred and twenty cells, each 9
feet long, 4 feet wide, and 8 feet high, designed as the dormitory of a sin-
gle prisoner, but often receiving two. Each cell is sujjplied with a bunk,
a straw bed, two blankets, a night bucket, and such other articles of
convenience or luxury as the taste of the occupant may suggest and his
ability enable him to buy.
On the hills Hanking the prison are immense reservoirs, one of which,
now in ])rocess of construction, will, when completed, hold 250,000 gal-
lons. Through it the prison will be supplied with pure mountain-water
by an incorporated company.
The prison staff consists of sixty-three persons, and their salaries
aggregate $50,34:0 per annum, over and above the su]>ply of the warden's
table and the board of the other officers, making together more than
one-third of the entire yearly cost of the establishment.
The industries carried on are the manufacture of furniture, saddles,
harness, wagons, and boots and shoes ; to which is added, in summer,
brick-making. These give employment to about five hundred and forty
men, whose labor is let to contractors at 40 cents a day. The average
number of prisoners is about 900, two per cent, of whom are women. The
chapel will seat five hundred persons. It has a handsome pulpit and
sofa, and an excellent cabinet organ, all purchased with money contrib-
uted by the prisoners. The organ is played by one of themselves.
There is no regular chaplain, and never has been. Public worship, how-
ever, is held every Sunday, conducted by ministers of different denomi-
nations from San Francisco, who volunteer their services. All the
l^risoners are permitted, though none compelled, to attend. About
three hundred are usually present. The prison choir is composed of
convicts, who perform well that part of the service.
After divine service the prison school is convened, in which one hun-
dred and fifty to two hundred prisoners are instructed in the elementary
branches of an English education by some of the better educated of
their own number. During the first eighteen months of the existence
of the school one hundred and eighty prisoners were taught to read and
write, and though many of them had been discharged, not one had come
back to prison. When the school closes, some twenty of the prisoners,
who profess to be striving to serve the Lord, meet for prayer and con-
ference, and an hour is spent in those exercises.
The prison library contains about 3,000 volumes, and is well patron-
ized, 1,(300 books being taken out every month. Occasionally the pris-
oners have an ejitertainmeut of their own, which consists of readings,
recitations, and compositions prepared by themselves. Once in a while,
also, a familiar lecture is delivered to them by some person invited to
that service, professors in the State University sometimes visiting the
prison for this purpose.
Formerly the principal means of discipline was the lash. This is now
not often used. The punishments at present em]doyed are loss of time
gained under the commutation law, the dark cell, a reduced diet, and
the shower-bath applied by means of a hose and nozzle. The commu-
tation law allows the convict a credit of five days for every month of
good behavior for the first two years, and an additional day during each
succeeding two years up to ten, after which he gains ten days per month.
This- law has worked admirably, and has very much reduced the neces-
o < 5 NATIONAL PRISON EEFORM CONGRESS OF 1S73.
sity for actual puuisliinent. Aside from this, no rewards are given for
good conduct.
Every convict, if without clothing of his own, is supplied, on his dis-
charge, with a suit by the State, consisting of a coarse shirt, a pair of
pants, a woolen jacket, a pair of brogaus, and a cheap hat; and, in
addition, $5 in money are given to him.
The prisoners' food, though plain, is of good quality and in abundant
quantity. On Thanksgiving and Christmas a sumptuous dinner is served
to them, which is usually provided by the benevolent citizens of San
Francisco through a committee of the California prison comniis.sion.
The sanitary state of the prison is good. Only eight deaths occurred
last year, being a little less than one per cent.
The expenses of the prison for the past year have been $1GG,790, and
the earnings 807,050, leaving a deficiency of $99,140.
The fees allowed the sheritfs for the transportation of prisoners after
conviction are 50 cents per mile for a single prisoner, and 25 cents for
each additional i^risoner. It thus costs, to get a convict to the prison
from some of the more remote counties, •$200. The entire cost of trans-
portation for the twenty-second fiscal year of the prison was $19,997.50,
or about $72 per prisoner.
The governing authorities of the county jails are the boards of
county supervisors, but the sheriffs of the counties, elected for two
years, are in immediate charge. These appoint their deputies, so that
change is as much the order of the day here as in the state prison.
The prison accommodations of San Francisco are not sufficient for its
needs. The city has two i^risons — a ])olice prison and a city jail. The
police prison is in the basement of tlie city hall. It is damp, dark, ill-
ventilated, and greatly overcrowded. The city jail is a substantial and
handsome building, but quite too contracted in dimensions for present
necessities. Sixteen Chinamen have been confined in a cell 10 feet by
8, with a ceiling only 8 feet high. The necessity for such cruel over-
crowding has been, in some degree, obviated by the erection of a small
additional building in the yard of tlui jail. A house of correction has
been resolved upon, which, when built and in operation, will afford all
the relief required for the present.
Tliere can be no doubt that our prisons themselves are schools of
crime. INIany are made confirmed criminals by being sent there, who,
in all prol^ability, would not become su(;li if, while undergoing their pun-
ishment, they could escape the moral contagion with which these places
abound.
There is but one reformatory for juveniles in the State. Tliis bears
the name of industri;il s(;ho()l, and is situated in the immediate neigh-
l)orh()()d of San Fran(;isco. The av(n'ag(Miumber of inmates is two hun-
<lr('d and fifty, all boys. The school has a, farm of one hundred acres,
wiiicli gives emph)vni(!nt to quit<^ a numh(u' of the children. Others are
engaged in shoe-making, tailoring, and household duties. A good many
are too young to labor. The forenoon is devoted to work, the after-
noon to study, and the evening to music, vocal ami instrumental.
There is a band (•()mi)osed of thirty boys, one of their number acting as
leader. 'JMie jiunishments are severe whipping with a cowhide or
leather strap, standing in a stooping posture on a wooden box or iron
safe, dark (icll, <scc. I'>s(;apes arc IV(!((uent. Jle(;ently thirteen got away
within a fortnight. The; history of tlie institution for some years past
lias i)('en d('|»loiaI>!(^ ; but dc^tails would scarcely be to edifi(;ation.
Of pn^vcntive mcasui-es in oj^MMtion among us I jdacc, lii'st the earn-
est, piayei-fiil clforts of Chi'istian men and wom<;n ; and chief of all the
PENAL AND REFORMATORY INSTITUTIONS OF CONNECTICUT. 379
influence of wise and godly parents. Next are the preaching of the
word, the Sunday-school, and other agencies for giving effect to the
gospel. Closely following these are public and private schools.
Our orphan asylums, where the lack of parental culture is, to a great
extent, supplied, are greatly preventive of crime. So is the Ladies'
Protective and Eelief Society, with its " home," in which one hundred
and seventy-three children, though not orphans, are cared for and edu-
cated. Temperance societies, young men's Christian associations, and
the various other benevolent agencies with which our State, and jiartic-
ularly the city of San Francisco, abound, are all doing their part in
this great preventive work.
Little or nothing is done for the aid of discharged prisoners, except
by the California prison commission, an institution organized in 1865,
with this as its primary object. Its ofiSce is in San Francisco. The
general agent gives his whole time to the work. He visits regularly
the city prison and county jail here, and the state prison at San Quen-
tiu. This he does, not only to converse with and counsel their inmates,
but also to learn their purposes and necessities, so as to be better pre-
pared to deal with them when, on their release, they call upon him at
his office. Having myself occupied the position for nearly five years,
and having been ever since familiar with the operations of the associa-
tion, I am f)repared to speak in emphatic terms of the success of the
agent's efforts. The number of discharged prisoners variously aided by
him during the past year was 402 ; the number of prisoners aided with
legal counsel, 116 ; aided by mitigation of punishment, 70 ; discharged
through his interposition, 46; aided with board and lodging, 101;
helped with small sums of money, 198; supplied with clothing, 8; fur-
nished with means to leave the city, 141. The whole number of pris-
oners conversed with, counseled, and in some way aided, materially or
morally, was 1,387 ; whole number of interviews had with these, 2,827.
2. Connecticut.
7)1/ Fitiv.J. K. Fessenden, secretary of the Convecticut Industrial Svhoul for Girh.
I. Preventive institutions. — By these are meant institutions designed
exclusively for children under eight years of age, who, by the death,
abandonment, incompetency, or vices of their parents, are thrown upon
society, but in no proper sense to be regarded as criminals. Of these
there are four Protestant orphan asylums, open to children of every
nationality and faith. The first was established by ladies at New
Haven in 1833. Commencing without funds and in a very humble way,
its assets now amount to $36,500, with several large legacies in pros-
pect. There are now one hundred and twenty-six inmates, more than
oiie-half of whom are of American parentage.
Next to this a similar institution was established at Hartford, which
has about the same number of inmates, and is already the recipient of
large donations and legacies.
Third in order is the Bridgeport asylum, which is of recent origin. It
^vas designed especially for the children rescued from the city alms-
house.
The fourth is a small family-home for poor children. This was started
by, and is under the control of, a benevolent lady in Danbury.
380 NATIONAL PRLSON REFOSM CONGRESS OF 1873.
All these lustitutions are private cbarities, under tlie management of
boards of women, and are aeconiplisbing a great amount of good.
There are two lioinan Catholic orphan asylums, designed exclusively
for the children of Catholics. They are at New Haven and Hartford,
fiespecting them, I have been able to obtain no definite information.
During the late civil war much interest was excited in behalf of the
children of soldiers killed in the service of our coiuitry. An association
was formed for their care, to which was given a home at Mansfield. Its
noble-hearted and Christian donor devoted himself to its superintend-
ence during his brief life, with the sole reserve of a bare mainten-
ance. The school was opened in ISGO, and up to Ist of June, 1871, had
received one hundred and thirty-two children, of whom sixty-eight were
admitted during the past year. It is supported largely by the contribu-
tions of the common and Sabbath-schools of the State, aided by dona-
tions from other friends, and by an appropriation of $1.50 per week for
each inmate.
A similar, though smaller institution, was established at Darien by
the liberality of a wealthy gentleman, who has largely contributed in
various ways to its support.
Of late there have been several other charitable institutions started
at Hartford and New Haven, which cannot fail to be preventives of
crime. I refer to associations for the aid of the poor, under the care of
the city missionaries, and also to reading and refreshment rooms for
news-boys and laboring men. There has also been established at Hart-
ford a boarding-house for respectable young women, where they can find
homes at a moderate cost land enjoy the associations and benefits of a
respectable and virtuous home.
IL lieformutory institutions. — These are the State Eeform School for
Boys, at West Meriden ; the Connecticut Industrial School for Girls, at
Middletown; and the Home for the Friendless, at New Haven.
The State lieform School for boys was established in 1851. It is a
State institution, created, owned, and, through a board of eight trustees,
controlled by the State. It has a valuable, well- watered farm of one
hundred and sixty three acres, which has become one of th'e model
farms of the State. The institution has ample accommodations for three
hundred boys, with model dormitories, s(;hool-rooms, worksho[)S, chapel,
offices, and all the modern appliances lor the pro})er care and discipline
of the inmates.
The barn and other out-buildings are substantial and convenient, and
the stock of the farm very choice and valuable.
The system on which the institution is conducted is that known as
the congregate, in «listinction from the family i)lan. It is so adminis-
tered as to be ])eivaded by a si)irit of wisdom and kindness — by the
mingling of authoiity with (lonstant ajjpeals to the intelligence, the best
con \i(;t ions, and the nobhist aspii-ations of the boys who are gathered
undci- its (-arc;; every day the family of the superintendi^nt and the
boys unite in nioiiiiiig and evening de\'otions, a(;comi>anied with tlie
in.sjtiritiiig sjii;:jiig of hymns and with such adviiH! as its gifted super-
intendent lliinics proper to inijtart. (Jod's ])rovidence and goodness
are iceognized in the convocations for morning and evening i)raycr,
and ;it each succ(!ssive meal. For several hours every one daily
attends one of these graded K(;hoo]s of the establishment, under the
general care of the assistant sM|)eiintendent, who from the beginning
lias managed lliis de|)ajtmeiit with coiiseiiMitioiis devotion and con-
summate- ability, and who has all tln^ assistancje iummUmI in his work.
Se\cral lnmrs are each A;\\ de\'o|ed t<» labor on the I'arm or in the
PENAL AND REFORMATOKi' INSTITUTIONS OF CONNECTICUT. 381
workshop, under tbe direction of skillful overseers, and with all the
necessary stimulants to skill and industry. The food and clothing are,
both in quantity and quality, all that health and comfort require;
cleanliness is exacted, and order and unhesitatiii,!;' submission to author-
ity enforced by special reli.uious services on tlie iSabbath, ami by a
constant reference at other times to the laws and claims of God.
More than eighteen hundred boys have been connected with this
school during the nineteen years of its existence. The limit of their
age is from eight to sixteen. Originally none could be sent to the
school who were not convicted by the justices of the peace or some
criminal court of an offense punisliable by law. But since 18G9 many
have been committed under the truant law.
The results — financial, moral, and social — of this school are believed
to be as favorable as those of any other institution of the kind in the
United States. The superintendent believes that three-fourths of the
boys become as resi)ectable, virtuous, and useful men as the average of
the common classes of society.
The counterpart of the boys' reform school is the Connecticut Indus- '
trial School for Girls. This is in the beautiful town of Middletown, on
a finely situated farm of forty-five acres, a mile and a half from the cen-
ter of the city. This site was the generous gift of the town, at a cost
of $11,500.
Uidike the boys' school, this institution is a private charity, incor-
porated by the State and employed by it to take charge of the viciOusly-
iuclined young girls who may be sent there. For this service the State
stipulates to pay -§3 per week for each girl thus sent. Unlike the boys'
school, too, this is organized upon the family plan, with houses having
accommodations each for thirty girls.
The school has been in operation three years, and has received one
hundred and sixteen inmates, of whom eighty-one still remain. Tlie dis-
tinctive features of this school may be thus concisely stated :
1. Its name is the industrial, not the reform, school for girls.
2. Itfi proper s,nhiects are viciously-inclined girls, between the ages of
eight and sixteen years. They are not simply orphans, or the neglected
and foundling, nor yet are they those who, as a class, have fully entered
upon a course of vice and crime. They are rather neglected and aban-
doned children, thrown out, from whatever cause, upon the wide world,
friendless, ignorant, and under the depraving and debasing influences
of abject poverty and vicious associations. Sixty per cent, of them are
wholly or in part orphans. More than 75 per cent, are the children of
drunkards and criminals — of abandonment and prostitution. Most of
them were paupers, beggars, vagrants, petty thieves, and too many of
them have already been drawn into the society, if not the practice, of
lewdness.
3. They are regarded and treated by the law of the State, not as crim-
inals to be convicted and punished, but as ignorant and exposed
children — as sinned against rather than as sinners, and as such to be
pitied and educated. The State stands in the place of a common i)areut,
and, as such, cares for them where their parents or other natural guar-
dians are dead, or are incompetent or unwilling proi)erly to train and
educate them. Upon due evidence of this fact, the State intrusts these
children to the care and guardianship of the directors of the industrial
school till they are eighteen years of age, with the power to restore
them to their natural parents, to bind them out, or to intrust them to
adopting parents, or suitable guardians.
4. At the school the aim is to bring tlie girl at once under the nearest
382 NATIONAL PEISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1H73.
possible approach to the influences of a well-regulated Christian family,
with its household worship, sweet songs, its motherly watchfulness,
and its pious counsels and steady and gentle but livmly authoritative
and constant training. All in turn are taught the duties of the house-'
hold — to wash, to iron, to cook, to sew, and to give to everything a look
of tidiness.
5. Careful aitention is given to scholastic and religious culture and
thrift and training; but it would occu[»3' too much space to go into
detail upon these points.
6. A residence at the school is not to be too long protracted — not
longer than is needed to fit the girl for a useful residence in a private
family, and the almost equally difficult task of finding a family that
■will be willing to take a friendless and often froward girl, and seek as
earnestly to complete the good work begun as to obtain her labor at the
lowest possible cost.
7. It is designed to leave the door wide open at all times for the girl's
return ^o the school if, for an^* cause, such a return is thought best, and
to follow those who have gone from it until there is reason to believe
that they are beyond the need of its guardian care.
There is promise of the best results, but it is too soon to speak with
confidence on this point.
There is a third reformatory institution, viz, the Home for the Friend-
less, at New Haven. This is designed for friendless, outcast, and neg-
lected women of every age and condition. The Industrial School could
not receive those who were far advanced in a life of crime. Hence
Christian women sought to provide for all such a refuge whenever they
were disposed to turn from their evil courses. Here, they say in one
of their reports, "from the hospital the convalescent, from the jail the
culprit, from the alms-house the friendless, find a gateway through
which they can enter the higher and purer paths to virtue and inde-
pendence." For this purpose they have purchased and fitted up a com-
fortable dwelling a few miles from the city. It is under the care of a
board of ladies Avho superintend all its concerns. The charity of the
benevolent has thus far abundantly supplied them with the funds
needed for their work, and in many cases they have had the joy of
knowing that their work of love has not been in vain.
III. Penal institutions. — Of these there are three classes, the town
work-house or house of correction, the county jail, and the state prison.
The several towns have power to establish work-houses or houses of
correction, to erect and provide suitable buildings, with cells or apart-
ments for the confinement of oflenders sentenced thereto, and to compel
the labor of the inmates. These are under the care of the selectmen,
M'ho ai)i)oint the keeper and regulate his pay. It is a sad fact that in
these town-houses are frequently found, indiscriminately mingled, the
virtiu)u.s and friendless poor, the demented, the imbecile, and the mis-
erable tramps, vagrants, ;ind drunkards, who infest the streets, and
steal their living so long as they are able, and then perhaps appl}'^ to
the town-oniccis for a brief shelter. \Vith these, too, are found the
refuse of tln^ towns and cities, sentenced there, time after time, for sixty
dijys, for diiinkcnnc.ss, jirostitutiou, and i)etty thelts. This class of
institutions arc a disgrace to the State, and will continue to be so, until
their triu; character and their enormity shall be brought to light by a
careful olhcial investigation, and remedied by the strong arm of State
autliority.
The H(!Cond class of i)enal institutions is the county jails. Of these
there arc eleven, or one for eiich of tin? county towns. As their names
PENAL AND REFOKMATOKY INSTITUTIONS OF CONNECTICUT. 6g6
indicate, tliey are county institutions, built, owned, and managed ex-
clusively by the counties. Q'he result of this is a great wnnt ol" uniforniity
in tbeir construction and nianageuient, and as great a diit'erence in their
general character. They are used only as places for the detention of
persons committed for trial or convicted of minor offenses.
Pull returns are made yearly through the county conjmissioners to
the secretary of state of the number, color, sex, age, and nativity
of the prisoners, as also of their social condition, habits, education,
causes of commitment, method of discharge, and of the receipts and
expenditures of each jail, an abstract of which is submitted to the legis-
lature. From this we learn that there were committed to the jails during
1871 two thousand seven hundred and forty-five persons. The average
number confined was three hundred and thirty. Of these, five-sixths
were males, thirteeu-fifteenths of foreign birth, more than half were com-
mitted for drunkenness, and only one hundred and forty-seven w'ere
strictly temperate. In most cases there is no other separation of the
prisoners than that of the sexes. There is no provision made by law for
their secular instruction, and but little if any given. The jail in New
Haven is of modern construction, and is the only one in the State which is
in any respect wkat it ought to be. In Fairfield and Hartford Counties
new buildings are in process of erection on the most approved models.
The character and influence of our jails is thus sketched by the spe-
cial commission on the state i^risou in their report to the legislature of
1872:
Many of our jails and houses of detention for the idle and vicious hold about the
same relation to the state ^)rison that the coniniou schools do to the colleges. We can-
not now enter into the sanitary condition of our jails and work-houses, though we are
certain that it is bad enough in most of them. But we call your attention to them as
nurseries of crime with regard to the state prison. lu the poor-houses the innocent
poor are brought into contact with the abandoned and profligate; and those who
have only slightly and for tlie first time, perhaps, departed from the way of decency,
associate with those skilled in crime and hardened in shame. In the jails those com-
mitted for trial, charged with a first offense and presumed bj' the law to be innocent
till proved guilty, 3,nd those young iu sin, have opportunities of association with the
vilest and most abandoned criminals, and the result in both cases is deplorable. The
minor jails are not simply feeders of the penal prisons, but they offer uncommon faciUiies
for the production of criminals. There are jails in this State which are as wisely and
humanely managed as is possible under our prison system, or rather our want of sys-
tem. But we are convinced that the jails and poor-houses of this State need a thorough
examination, and that it is time that we had a comprehensive system for all such in-
stitutions. •
3. The State prison. — From 1773 to 1827, the State prisoners of Con-
necticut were immured GO feet under ground in an abandoned copper
mine at Simsbury. The prison was known as the Newgate of Connecti-
cut. The history of that long period is one of the saddest proofs of the
barbarities then practised by Christian States upon the criminal classes.
In 1820 the present state prison at AVetherstield was built, and in
1827 was placed under the superintendency of Moses Pilsbuiy, with
the assistance of his son Amos Pilsbury, now of Albany. The latter
sncceeded his father as superintendent in 1830, and remained in that
position for fifteen years. There is scarcely to be found in the history
of state-prison management a brighter record than that of these years
under these remarkable men. The Connecticut state i)rison became
the model institution of the United States, and was assigned the first
place iu the report to the French government of the distinguished French
commissioners on prisons, de Tocqueville and de Beaumont, in 1830.
This pre-eminence, however, has long since passed away. A new order
of things in respect to prison discipline has dawjied upon the world, and
384 XATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF Ib73,
lias greatly modified the systems and management of other States, while
in Connecticut thej" have remained essentially the same.
The very able report of the commissioners of 1872, which has been
already cited, m<akes the following statements:
The commissioners entered on their work in the belief that the present prison might
he so repaired and moditied as to suit modern ideas, but tliey were brouj^iht to the
decided conclusion that the State needs a new prison on a more favorable site, and
constructed on an entirely different principle and scale. Among- the reasons given for
this conclnsioa are the dilapidated condition and utter inadequacy of the present
buildings; that there are no suitable accommodations for the ofticers; that there is no
suitable drainage of the premises; that the cells are too small and admit of uo ventii-
lation, and many of them damp and unwholesome ; that a proper separation of the
sexes even is now impossible, and, indeed, cannot be secured in the same prison. While
they would retain the present silent system, they would greatly modify it. They recom-
mend the construction of a new prison which shall admit of a proper grading of the
prisoners, the discontinuance of the parti-colored prison-dress, the cropping of the hair,
and, indeed, everything whiidi disregards the nianliood of the prisoner and extinguishes
hope. They would treat him as a man and a brother, though erring aiul falle^i and
degraded.
The industries pursued are shoe-making, the mauufacture of car-
penters' rules, and the burnishing of silver ware. The gross earnings
of the last year were $2G,39'J, and the ordinary expenses we^re $33,187,
leaving a balance in favor of the State of $3,212.
lieligious and educational agencies are employed to a limited extent
in the discipline of the prison. A chaplain is employed, wbo conducts
religious services daily and also upon the Sabbath, in which lie reports most
of the prisoners manifesting a commendable interest. A Sunday-school
is helil every Sabbath afternoon, and the men are visited duriug the
week by the chaplain in their cells. Much interest was awakened last
year by addresses on temperance, made by members of the Good Samar-
itan Association, of Hartford. Secular instruction is given in the even-
ing to a few prisoners in their cells.
The comuiissioners recommend that the new prison shall have every
needed facility for the mental and religious instruction of its inmates.
Prisoners have the power of shortening their terms of sentence by good
conduct, a measure which has shown itself useful both in a disciplinary
and reformatory point of view. No i)r()vision for discharged convicts is
made beyond tliat of giving them a suit of clothes and $L0 in money on
their liberation, lieform is urgently needed m this direction, either
through legislation or private benevolence. •
3. Illinois.
By Rfv. Fred. II. Wines, Hvcrekmj of (he Hoard of Slate Commissioners ofFiihlic Charit'us.
The jnison system of Illinois may be said, as in all the Western States,
to be still in its inlaney; and although a new State has one great advan-
tage over thos(j which are older in the opportunity thus alforded of
proliting by tlu! experience of those who have trodden the ]>ath before
us, we <;annot in Illinois boast of having improved our oi)portuiiity, in
so far as relates to the laws and usages of prison^. The reason probably
is found in the existence of an almost universal apathy and indiifereuce
upon thd subject. TIk^ reformation of eriminals is regarded as a hope-
less undertaking. The substitution of distri(^t ]»risoiis for county Jails is
icsisled by tiiose who depend in jkiiI, for their iiicom(» ujion the protits
PENAL AND REFORMATORY INSTITUTIONS OF ILLINOIS. 385
of jail-keei)infr. The result is, tliat any iutelliirent, systeinat.i(3 effort at
the iutrodaction of Uibor into prisons designed tor criminals of the lower
grade, or at intellectual or moral ciUture of criminals of this class, is at
Ijresent impossible. In presenting the following brief sketch of the
prisons of the State, therefore, my only object is to state what is, not to
depict what should be. For tlie realization of the desired reform in our
prison system we may be compelled to wait many years, until persistent
agitation and the advance of popular intelligence have accomplished
their work, lleform, at some time, is certain.
The count 1/ jails.
There are, in this State, one hundred and two counties. In nearly all
of them, at the county-seat, there is a jail, varying in size from a single
cell to tifty, and in cost from $l,0()U to !B!)0,OOU. A dozen of our jails,
at least, have cost over $20,000 each. Nearly one-fourth of the whole
number probably are substantially and handsomely built, commonly of
stone, and are furnished more or less fully with approved appliances for
heating, ventilation, sewerage, and bathing. Of the remainder, some
are under-ground dungeons in the basements of court-houses or of
sheriffs' residences; some are old-fashioned block-houses, sheathed on
the inside with iron ; some are iron cages, set like safes for moneys and
valuable papers, in the entry or in the upper story of the jailer's house ;
some are virtually pJvies, placed over open vaults, whose noxious
gases circulate through the cells and corridors above without let or
hinderance. Most of them are very small, and it is a pleasure to be
able to add that many of them are nearly always empty. The number
of prisoners in continement at any one time in Illinois is never large, if
we except the convicts in the penitentiary.
The following extract from the (unpublished) report of the board of
charities will furnish a somewhat fuller account of the jails of this
State :
Our deliberate jiulo-ment is, tlia J the practical value of jailn, whether as means of
prevention or of cure of crime, compareil with their great cost, is very triflinj^. We
find, upon inquiry, that others have arrived at the same conchision before us. lu fact,
this opinion is shared by nearly all wlio have given the subject any attention. Prob-
ably no other e(iual expenditure of public money is equally unproti'tabie.
In the tirst place, the county jails of Illinois, as of other States, are for the most
part badly planned, it not badly built. Some of them are very unsafe; and but for
the vigilance of the jailers in charge, escapes would be an every-day occurrence. They
are unsafe, either through the weakness of some i>articular portion of the structure;
or on account of the facility of communication iu them, among the prisoners, and
even, iu many instances, with the outside conmiunity ;. or because they ati'ord do ade-
quate protection to the turnkey against sudden assault.
Others are as secure as any jail can be made, but are wholly deficient in the essential
conditions of life and health. They have ordinarily no sewerage ; they are illy ventil-
ated, or not ventilated at all; they are very impeifectly lighted; some of them are
jlestitute of any means of warming the air in winter, and scarcely any of them .have
proper provision for bathing by the prisoners.
A jail may be safe and comfortable, and yet be so constructed as to render the classi-
fieatiou of i>risoners impossible. There is not a jail in the State in which the accused
are separate<l from the sentenced. Witnesses are often, but not always, confined in a
separate apartment, known as the "debtors' prison." In some of the jails there is uo
means of separating the sexes; iu others, the only separation is by cells, opening into
a common corridor; in others, female prisoners are confined in the debtors' prison ; in
others, a female departmeut has been extemporized iu the sheriff's jirivate residence,
by Kh<'athing an ordinary wHidow with sheet iron ; in a few, the female prison is prop-
erly planned a!ul built. The nuuiber of witnesses and women, however, ia coutiiue-
uicnt in this State, at any one time, is very small.
As to the internal management and discipline, generally, there is not much oocasioB
for complaint. We are satisfied that where food is so abvuulaut aud clieap, the temp-
H. Ex. 185 25
386 NATIONAL PRISON KEFOKM CONGKES.S OF 187;}.
tatiou to stint piisoiicis in their diet is wautiuj;-; and iu many counties tbcy are feil
from the jailer's own table; many counties even furuisliiu;^' clothin<f, in extreme cases,
at public expense. The jails are not always as neatly kept as tbey might be, and per-
sonal clt^anliness on the part of the inmates is not sntilicicutly insisted upon. In some
cases, a little more care to provide reading matter would be commendable. But in all
our experience, we liave found no evidence or intimation of personal cruelty to pris-
oners.
There are two particulars, and these of paramount importance, in which the very
best jails iu the State are as oljjectiouable as the worst. We refer (1) to the hourly in-
tercourse of prisoners witli each other, and {2) to their lack of any useful, honorable
employmeut. It is this association in idleness, ^vhich is the curse and coudenniatiou of
our present jail system.
Coulrnement in sei)arnte cells is a partial but very imperfect barrier to association ;
because communication between the cells is not impossible, and communication in the
corridors is generally allowed, to a certain extent. It is also customary to place front
two to six prisoners, when necessary, iu a single cell, on account of the want of suffi-
cient room iu the majority of jails.
The effect of association is to increase the number of criminals, and to develop their
<-riminality. The innocent and the (comparatively iunoceut are corrupted by the ex-
ample, the conversation, and the direct teaching of more experienced ti'ansgressoi's.
The lessons taught in county jails are, contempt for authority, human or divine; hos-
tility to law and to its officers ; the delights of vicious indulgence ; tlie duty of revenge
n])(ui society for imaginary wrongs; the necessity of violence, of daring, and of sullen
.-submission to punishment; the hopelesness of all ettbrt at amendment; and the best
methods of success iu criminal undertakings. Past exploits are here recounted ; future
<ieeds of darkness are planned. The history and character of noted criminals and of
-well-known oHiL-ials are tliscussed. Lewd songs aud conversation, pi'ofanity and ribald
jests, till up the day. In many jails card-playing is freely allowed. In a few, liquor is
not absolutely prohibited, provided that the prisoner ordering it is able to pay liberally
for the indulgence. Every jail is a school of vice. More than one hundred of such
-schools are niaintained in Illinois, at public expense; and the public furnishes an edu-
cation in crime, iit its own cost, annually, to hundreds of criminals, in this State alone.
"\Ve admit the necessity for i)risons ; but are we not right in asking whether prisons of
this particular class do not work as much harm as good to the comnumity ?
But the evils of promiscuous association are enhanced by the universal reign of
idleness in count \ prisons. This idleness is compulsory; it is a necessity of the situa-
tion. The State ai)points as the presiding f/cniiis loci, the mother of all villauy, instead
Mt' labor, the mother of every a' irtue. No policy could be more shortsighted.
Idleness, in prison, is a premium u])on crime. Multitudes of men conmiit larceny
every autumn, simply to secure, free of cost to themselves, comfortable board and
lodging, with agreeable company, through the winter months. They do not dread the
confinement, and care nothing for the disgrace.
In enforcing idleness, the State voluntarily relinquishes the most etVective means
both of the punishment and of the ])revention of crime. "What makes men criminals f
Iu nine cases out of ten, it is aversion to labor, aud the couvii-tion that a life of crime
is c^asier and fuller of enjoyment than a \H\; of indus(rv. Make labor compulsory in
all prisons, and the ])risou at once bei'omes a terror to evil-doers. • Couliueinent at hard
labor is to tiie majority of criminals the severest itossibie punishmenl. I>ut t»he present
system ignores tiiis mosf obvious tl'uth.
Tilt- pliysical and moral eH'ect of protracted idleness U|>ou individuals is deterioration.
The muscles become ilaeeid, lynqdi accunnilates, the nervous system loses its tone, the
^^ill is eiifi-ebled, the moial natun; is depraved; and at the expiration of his imprison-
ment, tin; olleiider goes Ibrth, to T'ccomnu'iuie his criminal career, with his i)ower to
earn an honest liv(Oihoo<l and to resist tem])tation diminished ius1<'a<l of augmented.
'iliese facts are well known to all county officials, .-iiiil gi\'e rise to mueh lamentation
on tile part of all sensible men who have the caust^ of i)ublie virtiu! at all at heait.
One of the worst (fleets of the jircsent s>stem is its intluenee n]>on circuit and connly
judges, in inducing them, against their ow n inclination, to sentence men lor the shortest
periods, when justice (bonands a maximum sentenc(i, instead. But a. judge in(nitably
Ibink.'i of tli(! cdst to the county of )>rotracted im]>risoument ; he knows its futility;
;iiid be, asks himself, what is tln^ use .' The consequence is, that crime is not ade(iuately
imnished ; transgressors are emboldened ; crime increases; and too ol'teu an outraged
<-omt)mnity takes the a dm i nisi rat ion of justice into its own hands. This is the origin
of lynch law. tli;it blot upon Anieriean ci\ ili/al ion. Lyiseli law is iiat nic's ow u remedy
toi- weal.ne^N iu the ciiniinal administration ol" any go\ crnmeiit.
1 lie jx'nUenHmy.
Ilif, llIiiK.i.s Sliilc ].)('iiit(iili;iry, ;il .I(»!i«'l, is diic oi' Hie liir.ocsl. iiii(l
iiiost «iiiioiiific('iif sliiicliiiN's ill llic liiitcd Stales. Jt is coiistiiiclcil on
PENAL AND KKFOKMATOliV IXSTll ITIONS OK ILLINOIS. 387
the plan of Ji center building- with two wings, and the necessary shops
are in the yard. The number of prisoners averages about twelve
hundred and tifty, of whom, perhaps, twenty are women. Tlie cellular
system is followed, in the arrangements for eating and for sleeping,
but the labor is on the congregate plan. Solitary conlinement during
the term of sentence is resorted to in tlie last extn'inity as a punishment
for the incorrigible refractory. The branches ot labor pursued are
cigar-making, cooperage, the manufacture of shoes and harness, and
also of butts, and stone-cutting. For stone-cutting and quarrying, the
immense fields of stratified limestone, at Joliet, atford peculiar facilities.
The new state-house now building at KSpringfield is constructed of this
stone, and the cutting is done by the inmates of the jienitentiary.
The average sentence of convicts at Joliet is about three years.
Seventy criminals have been sentenced to imprisonment for life in
Illinois during- the past seventeen years, of ^^hom seven died in prison,
one was sent to the insane asylum, and twenty-three have been pardoned,
after serving' for a longer or shorter time, as shown in the following
statem<Mit :
Three served 1 year; 2 served 2 years; 4 served 3 years; 2 served 4
years ; 1 served 5 years ; 0 served 6 years ; 2 served 7 years ; 2 served 8
years ; 1 served 10 years — 23 served, on an average, less than ti ve years
each.
Of the thirty-nine life convicts still in confinement, 2 have served 11
years ; 1 has served 8 years ; 2 have served 7 years ; 5 have served (5
years ; G have served 4 years ; 7 have served 3 years ; C have served 2
ye'ars ; 3 have served 1 year ; 7 have served less than one year — 39 have
served, ou an average, about three and one-half years each.
About four-fifths of the commitments are for crimes against property,
and one-fifth for crimes against the person. About one-fourth of those
committed are foreigners. The ratio of foreign convicts to the foreign
population of the State is no larger than that of native convicts to the
native population, one-fourth of our entire population being foreign -
born.
A library of three thousand volumes has been provided for the use of
prisoners. A school, numbering two hundred or two hundred and fifty,
has been organized, and a teacher employed. Keligious services are
held in the chapel on the Sabbath, and the chaplain visits the men
nightly in their cells.
For many years this penitentiary was leased by the State to the
highest and best bidder. A few years ago the system of leasing was
abandoned, and the discipline and financial management on behalf of
the State were placed in the hands of the warden, subject to the direc-
tion of a board of commissioners. On the 1st of December, 1870, the
indebtedness of the institution was stated by the warden at $332,832.18.
The general assembly, after making an appropriation for the payment
of the existing indebtedness, authorized the leasing of the 7a^or of the
inmates, retaining the general management and discipline in the hands
of the prison officers, and the result is that during the past year, for
the first time in its history, the penitentiary has earned $35,000 or
$40,000 above the actual expenses.
The State yefonn .school.
At Pontiac, ou the Chicago and Saint Louis Eailroad, a State reform
school has been established, which was opened June 1, 1871. One
hundred boys have been received as inmates since that date.
388 NATIONAL PRISON KPIFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
The reform school of Illinois differs from siujilar institutions in other
States, in the light in wliich it is regarded by the supreme court,
namely, as a ^;>/60u for juvenile offenders. No boy can be received
except under sentence of a court, nor can any boy be retained during
his minority, but all must be discharged on the expiration of the sentence.
All the inmates have been committed lor high crimes, and for periods
varying from one month to ten years. The average sentence is one year
and nine mouths. Under the decision of our supreme court, the in-
stitution fails to meet the design of its originators and best friends;
but the internal discipline is like that of a reform school, and the
authorities are allowed to discharge boys on ticket-of-leave.
DiscJi a rgcd eon c lets.
Xo agency exists in this State for the aid of discharged convicts, nor
is there any voluntary society to take the place of a State agency.
Central overmjld.
Illinois has a " board of public charities," charged with the duty of
annual visitation and inspection of all county jails and almshouses
within her borders, but the commission has no authority or power
beyond that of inspection and report.
4. Indiana.
By Charles F. Coffin.
The State of Indiana^ was admitted into the Union in ISIG. The pop-
ulation was then small, probably not exceeding 20,000. Most of its ter-
ritory was thickly covered with trees, and the labor of clearing and ren-
dering it habitable was great; hence its i)rogress for several years was
slow. Its inhabitants were nujstly farmers, crime was rare, and pun-
ishment speedy and of a primitive character. By a statute of 1807,
horse stealing, treason, murdcM-, and arson were punishable with death.
"Whipping might be intlicted for burglary, robbery, larceny, hog-stealing,
and bigamy, also for striking a ])arent or master. I'rovision was made
for conlinement in jail for some olVenses. The first jails erected were
merely snmll buildings of scpuired logs so arranged as to keep a crimi-
nal safel^'. The writer well remembeis one of this kind in which a mur-
(Icrer, who was afterward hung, was confined some time. With the grad-
ual growth of the State these were, in most cases, rei)laced with small
brick buildings, often with but one secuie room, having a small grated
window, and no other provision for light or ventilation, into this were
])Ut indiseiiiuiuately all who violated the statutes of the State and sub-
jected themselves to imprisoumeiit. I'ood was providcnl and brought
by the jaiier, and of course its (piality and (]uantity depended much
upon his will, and such attention was }>ai<l to the neatness and cleanli-
ness of the, (;ells as he thought i)roper, subject to an occasional insi)ec-
tion by the grand jury or <;ouuty commissioners. Courts werci but sel-
dom held, and olten j)risoiM'rs remained sev«^ral months awaiting trial.
Many su(;h jails are. stdl found in tlui agiiciiltural counties where there
are no large towns and but little crime exists, and they ar«' mui^h of the
time without a tenant. But the Stat<' has-growu rapi<ily and now nuni-
PENAL AND KEFORMATORY INSTITUTIONS OF INDIANA. 389
bers about 1,800,000 inhabitants; railroads and turnpikes have been
■constructed in almost cv^cry part oi' it; vast bodies of coal and other
minerals have been found, which have already given it, in many places,
the characteristics of a manula(;turiiig and mining community; large
towns and cities have grown up, and as a natural consequence crime
has increased. In some of the county-seats new jails have been built,
in which much more attention has been paid to the laws of health and
to the physical comfort of the prisoners, and yet too many of these have
been built with iron cells and grated doors, affording little obstruction
to free conversation and communication among the prisoners; a mis-
taken idea of kindness has caused most jailers during the day td allow
the prisoners i)romiscuously to intermingle in the halls and corridors,
thus opening the way for the hardened criminal to indoctrinate those
leas so, and for the younger to take lessons in crime from the older.
We believe, however, that as public attention is called to the matter,
more care will be taken in the construction and management of jails ;
and already, in some counties, fine buildings are being erected for pris-
ons. The prisoners are not required to labor in any of these prisons,
but are kept in total idleness. Book^ are sometimes furnished by the
benevolent, and religious instruction is given occasionally by those who
•do it voluntarily.
A system of district prisons, in which several of the agricultural coun-
ties are united, for those convicted of minor offenses and for the untried,
where the prisoners can be kept at labor and some attention given to
their moral, educational, and religious improvement, is much needed,
and it is hoped may gradually be introduced. There are ninety-two
counties in the State; in many of them the jails are untenanted most
of the year.
A state prison was first erected at Jefferson ville, opposite Louisville,
Kentucky', on the Ohio River, about the year 1822. As was the case with
many of the county jails, the cells w^ere built of hewed logs about fifteen
inches square, securely dovetailed together. The doors were of thick oak
planks bound with iron bands. A hole in the center of the door three inches
square was the only arrangement for ventilation. The first yearthere were
seven convicts; three lessees had charge of them, who received from the
State a bonus of $300, in addition to the proceeds of the labor of the
prisoners. In the course of a few years this temporary building was
followed by a brick one, which was occupied until the present building was
erected, in 1847 and 1848. It is of brick, and is surrounded by a brick wall
3h feet thick and 20 feet high, inclosing about four acres of ground, in
which are situated the shops as well as cell-houses. The cells are 7.]
feet by 4 and Gi feet high, with no light or ventilation except through
the grated door. There are now four hundred and six prisoners (about
twenty of whom are women) confined in the prison. The building is
considered wholly unsuitable, and the directors of the prison and the
governor of the State unite in urging its abandonment. The system of
.leasing was abandoned in lS5t>, and the present plan adopted, by which
the labor of the prisoners is let to contractors at a fixed price per day.
Most of them are now employed in the manufacture of railroad-cars,
under the dii^ection of foremen and men furnished by the car company.
The management and government of the prison is in the hands of a
board of three directors, elected by the legislature. These directors
choose a warden, chaplain, ])hysician, and moral instructor. The warden
has the api)ointment of a deputy, clerk, and such number of assistant
keepers as the directors may deem necessary. The discipline at pres-
^ont is kind, and the officers efficient ami good men. Provision is mad©
390- NATIONAL riv'l.SON KEFOK'M CONGRESS OF 1873.
by law lor tlit^ moral instructor to teach such convicts as the warden
may think proper "the artofreading-,writiug', ai'ithmetic, and geography."'
It is the (hity of the moral instructor to " superintend the rnental
and moral iiuprovemeut of the convicts, instruct them once every Sab-
bath, visit tbem wheu sick, have charge of the library, and superin-
tend the distributiou and use of the books, and adopt such other means
for the reformation of the convicts as himself, the warden, and directors
may deem expedient.''
The increase of ])risoners, together with the fact that the Jeft'erson-
ville prison is located at the extreme southern part of the State, led the
legislature, iu 185!). to pass a law for the erection of another prison, at
Michigan City, on Lake ^lichigan, in the north part of the State. This
has been completed and in operation several years, and now contains
three huiulred and forty-one prisoners. The laws and regulations for
the government of the Jeffersonville prison are in force for that at Mich-
igan City, and the same methods of labor, discipline, &c., are used. The
bnildiiig is a good one, cells well ventihited and lighted, and sufficient
provision is made for tlie health and comfort of the prisoners.
The whole number of convicts jn both the state prisons at present is
seven hundred and twenty-seven men and twenty women. These re-
ceive by law $15 when discharged, "and every article of value which
they may have had in their jjossession when received." No other pro-
vision is made by law for discharged convicts, nor are there any asso-
ciations in existence for the purpose. A bill is now before the Indiana
legislature i)roviding for a State board of prison commissioners, which
shall have charge of the prisons of the State, witli a view of bringing
about a classification of i)visoners and other useful improvements iu the
prison system.
The constitution of Indiana (adopted 1851) contains a clause that
" the general asscml)ly shall provide houses of refuge for correction
and reformation of juvenile otfenders." This was not practically carried
into effect until 18(»7, when the legislature passed a law for that purpose,,
in accordance with which a house of refuge for boys was built at Plain-
field, fourteen miles, west of Indiana])olis. It is u))on the family system
and has two hundred boys, in four separate family buildings, who are em-
])loyed at work on the farm of two hundred and twenty acres; also iu
cane-seating chairs, shoe-making, tailoring, and domestic work. Since the
opening of the institution about one hundred and sixty boyshave passed
through it and been discharged, most of whom are filling useful places
in the community, a few only having fallen back into crime. The re-
sults on the whole hav*; been highly satisfactory. There is a constant
pressure for the admission of boys, and it is hoped that the present ses-
sion of the h'gislatuie will make an ai)pro])riation for its enlargement.
A law was jtasscd by the general assembly in 18(i*.>, establishing
"The Indiana ReCormatory Institute for AVomen ami (Hrls," intended
as a state ])rison for woriuMi and a girls' reformatory, in separate depart-
ments, u?idcr the sanu; numagenuMit, and a building has been erected,
but iu)t yet (completed. Jt is much needed, in onler to furnish a place
for the lew women prisoners now confined at Jett'ersonville, as well as
for a girl.s' reformatory.
In four ov fivf^ of the cities of the Sfaf<' ther<>i are " homes foi- frierul-
less women," suppoi ted W\ pri\ ate cout ribuf ions.
MKNAL INSTITl^TIONS OF IOWA AND KANSAS. 391
•J. JOWA.
Jiy Mai till Heixci/, latt uiirdtit of tlic SUilc jjciiiliiiliiirif.
Tiic institutions establLslied in the State of Iowa for the punishment
and prevention of crime are a state i)rison, a state reforiu school, and
connry jails in most of the ninet.y-ei<;ht counties of the State.
The state prison is at Fort Madison, in the southeastern part of the
State; but another penal institution is in process of construction at
Anamosa, near the center. The discipline aims to be at once deterrent
and reformatory. Experience has show.n that in the great majority of
cases kindness and appeals to reason and manhood are efficacious with
the most hardened characters. Special attention is given to cleanliness,
and the dietary, though plain, is abnndant and wholesome. The result
is that we have very little sickness, and a death very seldom occurs.
The whole number of prisoners last year was two hundred and eighty^
of whom only one was a woman.
The prison has a chaplain, who gi\eshis whole time to the moriil and
religions instruction and reformation of the convicts, preaching to them
on the Sabbath, and laboring with them personally during the week.
Every convict is provided with a Bible.
There is a flourishing Sunday-school in connection with the peniten-
tiary. The average attendance is about two hundred and thirty. The
school is conducted as Sunday-schools generally are. The citizens in
thp vicinity show their interest by taking part in the instruction. The
good effects of the Sunday-school are seen in these notew^orthy facts.
First, there is less punishment required to preserve the discipline of the
prison by more than one-half than before the establishment of the
school. Secondly, the men do more work and do it better. Thirdly,
alacrity and cheerfulness have taken the place of moroseness and suUeii
discontent.
The common jail system needs great reforms. Numbers of the jail s
are deficient in nearly all the requisites for prisons of that sort.
A state reform school was established in 1808, at Salem, the results
of which have been highly gratifying.
6. Kansas.
By Htnnj HopUnH, ivardcn of the State penitetitiary.
It wonld be difticnlt to say what is doing, or has been done, through-
ont the State, by individuals, outside of the officials immediately con-
nected with the prison. We liave to contend with a very general feel-
ing of indifference as to present or future welfare of those committeed
to or discharged from ])rison. This is apt to be greater in new" than
is usually the case in older States. Crime is more prevalent in States
newly organized, into which the criminal class has been driven by
advanced civilization from other localities.
The principal institution organized for the treatment of criminals is
the State penitentiary, at Leavenworth, now only about one- third com-
pleted. It is to consist of a main building, composed of two wings oi"
250 by 60 feet each, with a cell block of four tiers, numbering six hun-
dred and eighty-eight cellsin all. Ijetween these wings will be a building
80 feet square and four stories high. A wall G feet thick and 21 feet
392 NATIONAL PKISON KEFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
high incloses a space of ten acres. This inch)snie will contain all the
necessary out-buildings and \vorivsho{)s.
The discipline is intended to l)e reformatory in its administration, the
prison being conducted on the congiegate silent system. Cha])el services
are held every Sabbath, and all prisoners are required to attend. After
the general services a i)risoners' meeting is held, at which any who wish
may remain aud take a part in the exercises. A school is also organized
for secular instruction, in which reading, writing, and arithmetic are
taught to those who are deficient. The prisoners partici])ate in their
earnings to the amount of about $12 each year, conditioned, however,
on obedience to the prison rules. The ])rison is supplied with a well-
selected library. The prisoners are allowed to api)ly their earnings for
the i)urchase of books and literaiy papers, or for the benefit of their
families.
Commutation, that is, abbreviation of sentence and a restoration to the
rights of citizenship, are allowed to all who by good conduct merit these
rewards. Permission is given to write letters once each mouth, and to
receive letters once each week from relatives and friends.
The object is to establish such trades as can be followed in this State
after discharge, and to every prisoner, whenever possible, is taught
either an entire tiade or so much of a trade as will enable him to gaiu
a livelihood when discharged. For the general good of the prisoners
sedentary trades are excluded as much as possible.
Punishment is avoided in every case where the same result can be
obtained by other means. Violations of prison rules are always noticed
in some manner, and the i)unishment of offenders is only administered
by the warden or his deputy. Close attention is paid to the physical
requirements of the prisoners, and a ready and diligent performance of
labor is demanded. The intention is to make the prison pay all expenses,
and, if possible, to produce a revenue, because we believe that so the
prisoners may be most certainly reformed.
Emi)loyment is provided for as many as desire it. on discharge, when-
ever it can be found. This duty devolves especially ou the chaplain,
who resides at the prison aud devotes his entire time to the duties of his
office.
The contract system is not in use here, the industries being carried
on by the State, with the exception of twelve men. This I consider far
l>referable to contracting, as it is seldom that a contractor takes any
interest in tlu^ reformation of the prisoners, his great aim being to make
as mucli money out of them as ])()ssil)]e. The idea of the discipline in
this prison is to make better men of those sent to it, and at the san)e
time to so administer it as to deter otliers irom making it necessary to
send them here. Make it corre(;tive, and you thereby make it repul-
sive, ('orrection is naturally repugnant to tiie human heart.
We have, as yet, no ])reventive. institution in Jvansas uiuler that
name, but tlie Home for Fi-iendiess Wonu'n, at Leavenworth, subserves
that end very elTectively, as far as it goes, as tlie following extract from
its first report shows :
Miicli fjood lias lifcn .•iccuniiilislicd l>y tliis iii^cucy, ;i.s it Ii.is hci'ii llic iiicniis of saving
many from a (M'iiiiinal lil'«-.
Two ycarM niiico Mm Kansas li';rislatiiro ;;avo $IO,(i()i) wifli wliicli In )iiiilil a " lTi>mo."
Tlu> city (if li(rav<inwortli ;;avi' lof.s wuilli ^'^.OOK, on wliicli to liiiiM. 'I'lic (Mlitico ia
now <;(nn))lc.tt',(l. Il, Ih l!! Iiy itlj fiK^f, composed ol' four istoiicvs, iiu'linliii'^ liasi^imnifc ; if>
of brick, and of fasfcfid di'.Hi;4n. It was ibrnnilly opdMcd October l>, l-^l I, and has nu»t
tlio in-cds of llic association. Witii barn, Anioc.s, ,snl»sia,ntial Hfonc walk, and j^rounds
lilli'd witli fr'nit tscr-.s and slinililicry, if is an oniannMif to tlm cily. ami sfaiuls a jxn'-
jx'finil <"icr)ini:ini of tin' lit" r.ilily and I'lmrilv of tlir Slate wliiili luiili and llir lownn
PENAL AND KEFOKMATOKV INSTITL'TIONS OF MAINE. 393
wbicli furiiisbcd it. There is no oiidowimuit, and no ono conuecti'd with tho institu-
tion receives a dollar's pay for tinic; or labor, except its matron. Even oiir jdiysicians'
ouorons services arc {gratuitous. It has extended aid to over two hundred and fifty
women. Durinj^ tho last year one hundred and ten have bceu admitted, and twenty
children have been born under its rooi'. Of these inmates comparatively few have
belonged to Leavenworth. Tlio ))oor and friendless, whom we feed, slielfer, and
befriend, are not ours alone. They come from other towns and ncigbliorhoods. They
comprise respectable women Avho reach Leavenworth out of money, and needing tem-
porary help, a few meals and lodging, until they can hear from iVieuds. Or they are
forsaken wives, who, perhaps, find themselves on the eve of maternity without friends
or shelter. Often they are young girls fiom the country seeking (Employment, and
while doing so come to ns for refuge, and if we fail to give it they are easily fonnd
of "her whose house inclineth unto death and her paths to the dead." We also have
many cases of young girls from other localities, who leave their homes hoping to hide
their shame among the crowds of a strange city. Caring for these through the hour
of woman's greatest trial — and, when they wish it, adopting their children — we can
often save those unpitied mothers from further degradation, and return them to their
iiomes and better lives.
And last, but not least, we wish to keep open a refuge for the only class agaioisi
which a cold world seems savagely to bar the door of vA'orm— fallen hut repentant
women.
There are two ori)li;m asylums (one Protestant and one Catbolic)
organized in the State, wliicli are doing much good for the outcast youth-
ful population. Good homes are secured for all when they arrive at
suitable ages, and they are watched over after discharge from the in-
stitutions.
It is in contemplation to organize a house of refuge at an early day.
All these indications show that the people are becoming aroused to the
necessity of providing for existing wrongs.
Our system of free schools is not excelled by that of any State in the
Union, and its fund is inexhaustible. Two State normal schools are now
organized, and every school district in the State has its substantial
school-building, and is supplied with competent teachers.
Compulsory education is gaining fovor throughout the State. This,
if properly applied, will act as a great preventive of crime. Would it
not be well to re-establish the old Jewish law, and require every boy to
learn a trade, as it is seldom, indeed, that a good mechanic is sent to
prison from any cause '
7. Maine,
/)// Ber. J. K. Ma^nni, former chaplain of the state iJrison.
The State of Maine was formerly a "district of Massachusetts," and,
singular as it may seem, })resented the phenomenon of a district several
tiuies larger than the State to which it belonged. In 1820 it became
itself a State.
In regard to penal and refomiatory institutions, Maine is behind several
of her sister States. This results in part from having given her atten-
tion more to the causes than thecureof crime ; to what makes criminals
of men than to what will make men of criminals. The grand question
has been how to preserve her population industrious, sober, and moral,
and thus safe and prosperous. Thus reformatory systems and discipline
have been somewhat overlooked, until of late. Maine is clear in her
conviction that something more is to be done for her fallen ones, but is
neverthplcss quite as cleai'that she must look first at the causes of their
fall. The so-f';tllod Mnino i;i\v in regard to the sale of intoxicating
liqnois is r.iif <»f(iie ri'snUs of tiiis roiivi'-tMH. ;in<l not n tupv*^ "fanatical
394 NATIONAL PIUSON KEFORM CONGKESS OF lb73.
wbiiu,"' as some have tliouf;ht. If it be true, as facts demonstrate, that
at least tbree-foiirtlis of all the convicts in the State penitentiary are
there through the influence of intoxicating li((uors, it has seemed that
wise men, and certainly (/ood men, could not be at a loss where to apply
some State force. The wonder is that any are blind enough, either
through prejudice or ignorance, to snfter an evil that is so monstrous to
eoutinue its havoc and necessitate these jienal institutions everywhere
as exponents of its accursed entail.
The Stat«^ penitentiary is located at Thoniaston, and is in a coixlition
i)f great industrial and tinancial prosperity. In this respect, the past
year has exceeded every other in its history. I think I hazard nothing
in saying that it is unexcelled. It is conducted on the congregate plan,
and every man who is physically able must work at some trade, which .
he is stimulated in various ways to become master of, so that he may
have resources within himself that will in the futnre diminish his temp-
tation to crime. His educational and religions wants are so cared for,
under the direction of a chaplain, that he has no excuse for further.igno-
rance or -va ickedness. The amount of instruction, however, in both,
might be largely increased by means of additional facilities. The sani-
tary arrangements are good ; food plenty and wholesome; an occasional
holiday granted, when a sumptuous dinner is given and opportunity af-
forded for social intercourse foran hour or two, under the eyeof the ofticers
and a few friends. Personal cleanliness is insisted on as a virtue indis-
pensable to both physical and moral health. It is the aim of the gov-
ernment in all its rules and practical applications to inspire courage in
the convicts — to lift them into as high a measure of manhood as possible
with their present surroundings — and to tit those whose sentences are
not perpetual to go forth to society and the world again with habits of
patient industry, a remunerative trade, and some educational acquire-
ments ; controlled by principles or purposes of integrity and sobriety,
and stimulated to a faith and hope that will help them through a great
many unavoidable dilliculties and discouragements.
The Hon. W. W. Itice, who has been warden for the past nine years,
not believing in the policy of the contract system of labor, has held the
specific control of the industrial and business matters in his own hands,
giving personal attention to the various details. He believes that that
has been one of the grand secrets of its industrial and tinancial success.
Under a less energetic and able financier, the balance-sheet might show
footings not so favorable.
The warden is ap])ointed by the governor and council for the term
of four years, and has control and is made responsible for all the
subordinate officers, concurrently with the ins])ectors. One of the
inspectors, who are also api>ointed by the executive of the State, is
icipiired to visit the prison at least once each month, and the entire
board once in thrcM^ months, to make careful investigation in regard
to all the interests of the i>rison. Tlicie is a comnuitation law by
whi(;li tile executive may deduct a certain portion from the sentence of
every (tonvict for industry and obe<lience. This operates as a constant
incentive to all who are not utterly ami hoi>elessly incorrigible.
The. jiresent numVn'r of convicts is onci liundred and sixty-four, oue-
lifth of whom are nnd<'r twenty one years of age. About two-thirds
under twenty-seven.
Our county Jails arc by no means what tln\v should be, but I forbear
a (U'scriptioii of them as llicy arc, since they are now undergoing care-
ful study, and the probaliility is that they ^vill be speedily reconstructed
in sncli iiiannei-, as to ha\e connected tlierewitb facilities (or vari-
PENAL AND EEFORMATOKY INSTITUTIONS OF MAINE. 095
ous iiidustiies, and for classifying their iumates ; and some of them
appointed as places of detention, discipline, industry, and other appli-
ances of penal and reformatory treatment for a class of criminal.^
whose antecedents hardly warrant the practice hitherto followed of
degrading them as the worst of criminals by commitment to the state
prison.
Our State Eeform School for Boys is located at (Jape Elizabeth, a
suburb of the city of Portland, and is at present in charge of the IJev.
E. VV. Hutchinson as superintendent. It has existed for nineteen years
and been attended with somewhat varied success. This school, for cer-
tain reasons, does not accomplish all that was hoped from it. One of
these is, doubtless, to be found in the statutory i^rpvision that, under
certain specified circumstances, the several towns or cities patronizing
it shall contribute $1 per week for each inmjite they furnish. The result-
is that they send as few as possible, and the rural towns ignore it almost
wholly. Of the fifty-nine commitments the past year nearly one-half
were from the single city of Portland. From three other principal cities
not a single commitment was recorded. If that ])rovision of the statute
were repealed and another substituted requiring the parents to pay such
a part of the expense as the town or city assessors might consider them
able to do, a demand of justice would be met, a difficulty remedied,
and, perhaps, a stimulus created that would operate favorably in regard
to home discipline.
This institution is conducted after the congregate system ; is under
the general direction of a board of trustees, who appoint the superin-
tendent and assistant superintendent, matron, physician, and chaplain,
and all the subordinate officers, and assign their position and duties.
The whole is under the general supervision of the governor and council.
There is a large farm connected therewith, the cultivation of which is
carried on by the labor of the boys with a moderate degree of success.
The shoe business affords employment for a score* or two of the bo^'s,
and chair-bottoming for as nmny more ; and a large number of the
youngest are employed at knitting, sewing, &c., for the older ones. The
various other kinds of work about the institution are done by the in-
mates, under the direction of departmental overseers. The educational
department is in charge of several teachers, selected with reference to
the different grades, according to which the inmates are classified.
Most of the boys make good proficiency.
The Sabbath-school Avork is carried on by the voluntary efforts of
Christian men and women from the city. Based on the influence of thia
and on the accpiiring of habits of industry, of which, on entering, nearly
all are destitute, the friends have learned to recognize their main
reliance for reform. At the close of 1871 the school numbered one
hundred and thirty-four, twenty-six less than the |)receding year. The
whole number committed in eighteen years of its history is one thou-
sand two hundred and eighty-one, of ages varying from seven to nine-
teen years.
Of the whole number, more than one-third had intemperate parents;
another third had relatives in i)rison 5 two-thirds were habitually idle.
More than two-fifths were truants; nearly one half were Sabbath-
breakers; more than three-fourths were untruthful, and more than
two-thirds were profane : a sad commentary on the places many children
are allowed to call " home," and still worse on the character of, their
parents.
The institution is sustained by the products of its own labor as far
as that will go ; the residue, about one-half or two-thirds of the expenses.
396 NATIONAL PRISON EEFORM CONGRESS OF 1373.
being provided for by appropriations direct from the State treasury.
All its business transactions are conducted on the cash basis.
x\u industrial school for i,''irls is i)artial!y inaugurated, and it is ex-
pected that the current year will see it in operation.
Maine believes that penalty should be administered as far as possible
in the interest of reform.
8. Maryland.
By G. S. Grifith, j^rcsiclenf of fJic Maryleind Frisoiiera' Aid Assodafioti.
The prominent penal reformatory and preventive institutions of Mary-
land are situated iu the city of Baltimore and its immediate vicinity.
The prisons, properly so called, are the kState penitentiary, the Bal-
timore jail, and twenty-one other jails in tke several counties additional
to that of Baltimore.
The State penitentiaryis in Baltimore. The whole number in the prison
at the close of 1872 was 598 ; of whom 541 were males, and 57 females ; of
the males, 371 were colored ; of the females, 5L*. There were received
into the prison in 1869, 317 prisoners ; in 1870,280; in 1871,262; iu
1872, 188. This statement would indicate a gradual decrease of crime
iu Maryland within the last four years.
AVhile the discipline is positively deterrent, it earnestly aims to be
reformatory. The agencies employed are moral suasion^ positive discip-
line, labor, and rewards. Kewards, however, are more relied upon thau
punishments, and with the best results.
The general condition of criminals in point of educatiou, on their com-
mitment, is lamentable. Unhappily no systematic effort is made for their
mental imin-ovemeut while in prison. The penitentiary, however, con-
tains a very good library for the use of the convicts.
The labor of the i)risoners is let to contractors. It is believed that
this institution will l»e hereafter self-sustaining, the opportunities and
organization of labor having been im[)roved by the enlargement of the
worksho])s.
There are no religious agencies ofhcially employed, but the Prisoners'
Aid Association, to be hereafter spoken of, takes charge of this work.
It has established two nourishing Sunday-schools in the prison, which
are taujiht by ladies and gentlemen who volunteer their services. These
religious exercises are much ])rized by the prisoners, and excite the
lively interest of all who witness thorn. Sacred music is taught to the
l)risoners as an element of re-form. On Sunday afternoons the nuilcfind
female <-onvicts are assembled in separate <'hapels for divine service.
T\^c offirjafing ministers are siilected from dilferent dc^nominations. It
is optional w ith the jn-isoners to attend or not. Three hundr<Hl and forty-
thr<'e availed themselves of the i)rivilege last year.
Tin; Baltimore, v'ity .Jailis a sul)stanlial stone building, of striking
architectural piojjortions. In its construction and arrangements it may
be regarded as a model institution. iMost of the other county jails are
<lefectiv(5 in all the attrii)ut(;s of ai good jtrison. Under the auspices of
the aid association, icligions exercises are regularly (U)ndueted on Sun-
day afternoons in the <-,ha])el of l-hc! iialtiinore jail.
The reformatory and ]>reventive institutions of Maryland are the
Baltimore^ Houk(; of Refuge, the Maryland Inebriate Asylum, the Jlome
^)f the (lood Shepherd for Women, the iMaryland Industrial School lor
PENAL AND REFORMATORY INSTITUTIONS OF MARYLAKU. 397
Girls, the Home for Fallen Women, tbe Saint Mary's Industrial School
for Boys, the Manual Labor School, the Chihlren's Aid Society for Boys
and Girls, the Ilon>e of the Friendless for Children, and the Ilouse of
Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children.
The House of Eefuge is situate<l two miles from Baltimore, in a high
and healthy location. The building is constructed with a view to de-
veloj) the physical as "well as the moral and mental growth of the
inmates. This is the most Important reformatory in Mary hind for juve-
nile delinquents. It is designed to receive the youth of our State who
become too insubordinate to be governed by their parents or guardians,
and for those who are sentenced by the criminal courts and magistrates
for committing public offenses. They are sent to the care of this insti-
tution until they become of age, unless otherwise provided for by the
board of managers in consideration of great moral imi)roveme!it, which
often occurs under the excellent administration of the superintendent,
Mr. William R. Lincoln.
Religious instruction is given without any denominational bias.
The institution contains a commodious chapel. Divine service is con-
ducted every Sunday afternoon by clergymen invited from various de-
nominations. The congregational singing is led by Mrs. Lincoln, (he
worthy wife of the su[)erintendent, who presides on all occasions with
perfect command of the organ.
The usual exercises of a Sunday-school are regularly observed ; the
helpers in this good work consist of a faithful corps of teachers, who go
out from the city every Sunday morning.
Music is a particular element of education of the boys. Thej' have
organized a brass band, which is the source of much pleasure on public
days and festive occasions. They are frequently invited to the city, to
play at fairs, and other entertainments held for benevolent purposes.
The other branches taught are those of a primary common school. The
larger boys receive instruction equal in grade to that of the grammar-
schools, including' the elements of natural philosophy, ])hysiology, alge-
bra, &c. The refuge is at t)uce a benevolent, reformatory, and educa-
tional institution. Since it was opened in 1855, li,150 minors have
passed under its control, of whom 1,942 were boys, and 217 were girls.
At the present date there remain under care 331, of whom 315 are boys
and 16 girls.
Labor is found to be a most desirable adjunct in the eftbrt of reform.
The workshop, next to the Sunday-school and secular instruction, is the
best corrective of evil habits. Here the boys are employed in the har-
ness shop, shoe shop, tailor's shop, broom and basket shop, in caning
chair-seats, «&c., and in tanning and gardening, besides assisting in the
work of the household. The products of the farm and garden last year
amounted to $2,21:8.28. The institution is in part self-supporting, yield-
ing a profit from the mechanical labor of the inmates.
The Saint Mary's Industrial School for the city of Baltimore is a
Roman Catholic institution. Its object is to receive, teach, and train to
virtue and industry orphans and other destitute boys. It has an impos-
ing building and a farm of one hundred acres. The boys are committed
to this school, not for crime, but on account of destitution and to pre-
vent crime. It has received in all two hundred and sixty-nine boys, of
whom iilty-one have been apprenticed to farmers.
The Baltimore Manual Labor School, for indigent boys, was estab-
lished in 1842, and has had an average of forty-tive boys. It is neither
penal nor reformatory, but preventive. It receives only orphans or
Lalf-or[)hans. It has a farm of one hundred and forty acres. Tbe
398 NATIONAL PRISON REFOPfM CONGRESS OF 1873.
boys, on loaviiig the institntiou, are apprenticed to some mechanic or
farmer.
The Boys' Home is not a reformatory, sncli as the liouse of refuge,
nor is it a honse of correction, wliere coercion or force can be employed
to coni])el obedience. It is a large household, Avherein obedience is recog-
nized as a duty, and love is the incentive to its exercise. Like any well-
regulated family circle, it has its daily separations and reunions. After
breakiast each member goes out to hi-s appointed labor. The directors
find the system of encouraging volunteer labor to work admirably.
The boys are assisted to find work, and get fair wages. Most of them
are h_\irning mechanical trades. Those who have employment are
<'harged the small board of ^=1.75 per week. The balance of their earn-
ings is put into a savings-box until the end of the year, and then returned
to them. This arrangement generates feelings of independence and
self-respect. Under the genial iulluences of the Home, thej" are taught
habits of economy, cleanliness, virtue, industry, obe<Uence, and self-
reliance. It prevents vagrancy, pauperism, crime, and juvenile delin-
•!)uency. This is a great saving to taxpayers, and sound political
economy.
The Maryland Industrial School for (xirls is designed to rescue girls
between twelve and eighteen years of age, who have lost their virtue or
are in danger of losing it, from vagrancy and exposure to evil influ-
ences. Since the opening, in 1868, seventy-two girls have been received.
The discipline of the school is that of a Christian family. Its law is
kindness. There are no walls or bolts. No corjioreal punishment is
permitted. Deprivation of privileges and meals, with detention of the
refractory in her room until penitent, is sufficient. The ordinary
branches of a common-school education are taught, with singing and
Bible lessons. Instruction is also given in all branches of household
labor, and in canning fruits and vegetables. The improvement of the
girls in all respects has been very marked and gratifying while in the^
institution. Thirty-four have been restored to their friends, twenty-
three have l)een i)rovided with situations, ttvo have died ; the rest are
oither now in the school, or have been discharged for disease or other
<;auses. lleligious instruction has been regularly given.
The Children's Aid Society is a recognized temporary asylum for all
truant and stray children picked uj) in the streets by the police, and for
children whose j^arents have been committed to the Jail or almshouse for
disorderly conduct or vagrancy. In many cases they receive food and
shelter until tfiey are fouiul by their parents, or reclaimed by others
afte.r they are released from confinement. Since the institution was
opened, in Js()(>, ],()!)!' children have received its protection. At present
SM are in good homes ])i(>vided for tlicm either in Maryland or in the
lu'ighboring Slates of I'ennsylvania ami Viiginia. Their lost er- pa rents,
or those wlio lake them in charge, are rejpiired by the board of mana-
gers to maUe monthly i'e)»orls concerning llieir welCare.
'llie Home for the I'^riendless is a i)re\'entive institution under a board
of lady managers. It receives small boys a)id girls, tln^ n<\glected, de-
serted, nnliciilthy, maimed, (tri])pled, and also the incurably al'tlicted.
The total numbei- of inmates received since it was organized is l,()4li.
Of these tliere remain at jiresent date i;5(l, many of whom aie under
eight years of age.
The Ilousi' of Reformation iiiul instruction for Colored Children was
iticoij)orat(Ml by the general assembly of jNIaiyland at the rlanuary ses-
sion, 1S70. Maiyland has a large colored ]»o]»ulation, esp(>cially since
:!"• emancipation of shives. 'i'his population, \\ hich has hei'etolbre been
PENAL AND REFOKMATOKV INSTITUTIONS OF MARYLAND. .j09
ilei)rivt>d of Ibe l>enefits of education, is now thrown upon us in a de-
plorable state of ignorance. Ignorance, idle habits, and crime generally'
go hand-in-haud together, and become an element of danger to the com-
munity. The board of visitors of the Baltimore city jail report the fol-
lowing commitments of colored persons during the past year : For the
Violation of the peace and for drunkenness, 1,890: for larceny, 375; for
v'agrancy, 70 ; in all, '2,0^5, many of whom were children between the
age of eight and ten years.
A farm, containing 700 acres, in Prince George's County, has been
purchased for this institution. Ap[)ropriations have been made by the
8tate legislature of $10,000 for two succeeding years, making a total
of $20,000. Twenty thousand dollars additional have been centributed
for this object by Enoch Pratt, esq., and ten thousand dollars more by
subscription.
Such is a brief and imperfect sketch of the preventive and reform.i-
tory institutions of Maryland.
What is the chief cause of crime ! Xeglect of the early right training
of children. What is the chief preventive of crime ? Increase the forces
a hundredfold to save the children. The unrestrained boys and girls
of our community are the roots of that cancer which grows into public
injury. It is a sad, stern truth that some of those who are now boys
and girls are to be the paupers and criminals of the future. No one
doubts that many noble and useful citizens come from the ranks of the
]>oor. Yet it is no less true that paupers and criminals spring almost
entirely from the untrained outcasts of society, such as neglected
orphans, children of drunkards, the illegitimate children of prisoners
and paupers, and the children of thieves.
The situation of the reformatory and preventive institutions of Mary-
land is a subject worthy of note. They are located in the most healthy
sections of the city or county of Baltimore, on broad streets, wide ave-
nues, or eligible farms, the sanitary advantages having been always^
considered in selecting a site. The buildings are erected on high
grounds, affording spacious yards or areas for exercise during the hours
of recreation. They are constructed with large windows, wide pas-
sages, and broad stairways, with a view to obtain the unobstructed rays
of light from the rising to the setting of the sun, and afiee and full cir-
culation of pure air. It is a fact which marks the history of these
various institutions, that the inmates are exempt in an extraordinary
manner from epidemics or even sporadic diseases. Their list of mor-
tality records fewer deaths than occur ia common households among the
same number of children and youth.
Experience teaches that the essential elements of health will promote
the moral as well as the physical growth of human natui'c. The genial
influences of air and sunshine, will Denetrate the heart and generate
kindly feelings, stimulate bright rlionghts, and excite the hands to useful
works.
The work of aiding discharged i)risoners is well organized in this
8tate. The jMarylaud I'risoners' Aid Society was established early in
18G9, and has been ever 'since working with zeal, eflSciency, and success.
The sphere of action of this society begins in the State penitentiary,
iind extends to all the jails and almshouses throughout the State of
Maryland. The ofiicers and wardens seem willing to co-operate in any
measures the association may suggest to ini{)rove the condition of the
inmates under their ciuugc. The ])rincii)]es on which it works, and the
work itself, haxe secured the hearty ni)proval of both the criminal courts
and tlie piisou aathoiities.as the following testimonies abur.dantly])rove.
400 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
Judge GiliDor, of the crimiual court of Baltimore, says: "I take great
interest in the successful operations of this society, which I regard as
one of the best and most important of onr public charities. It has
already accomplished much good, and if the welfare of tliat large chiss
whose condition it is its aim to relieve, is not deriving all the benefit it
should, it is only because enough of our charitable citizens have not.as*
yet come forward to unite in and contribute toward the objects pro-
posed by the association."
In their last annual report the board of visitors of the Baltimore city
jail remark: "The Prisoners' Aid Association, of which Rev. Penfield
Doll is the agent, and whose benevolent work among the fallen and
guilty it has more than once been onr pleasure to acknowledge, is con-
tinuously at work, and making its inliuence for good widely felt."
9. Massachusetts.
By F. B. Sanhorn, member of the Massachnsetls Board of State Charltic-i.
ifassachusetts, which by the census of 1870 had a population of 1,457,-
351, now contains more than a million and a half inhabitants, of whom
oidy about 14,000 are colored persons, while nearly 400,000 are of foreign
birth, and more tlian 030,000 of foreign parentage. It has been estima-
ted that from 25,000 to 30,000 of these inhabitants belong to what may
be called the crimimU class, including drunkards and vagrants, who,
under Massachusetts laws, are punishable with imprisonment. The
actual number of different persons imprisoned in a single year (exclusive
of pupils in reformatories) is now probably about 15,000, and steadily
increasing. The number of persons convicted of greater and smaller
offenses, in 1872, was about 8,000, probably ; but of these only 160 were
Sent to the state ))rison at Charlestown. Tiie average number in all the
prisons, commonly so-called, incdiuling persons waiting trial, or held as
witnesses, was 3,218, of whom 51.'] were in the Charlestown prison, and
298 in the State woi k-honse at Biidgewater, making 841 under direct
State control; something less than 2,000 were in houses of correction
and other convi(;t prisons under city and county control, and 429 were
in the county jails. The whole number in ])rison in Massachusetts on
the 1st of .laiiuary, 1873, was about 3,280; naniely, 570 in the state
prison at Charlestown, 228 at the Biidgewater State work house, 1,440
in thirteen county houses of correction, 582 in the Boston work-house
or house of industry, and 454 in seventeen county jails. Add to these
the number tem[)orarily imprisoned that day in guard houses, police-
stations, &c., and the aggregate would exceed 3,350. The figures of the
census of 1870, in regarcl to crime in Massachusetts, are very incorrect.
Tiie number in the State, city, and county ])risons, exclusive of the
guard-houses and station-houses, on the 1st of October, 1872, was re-
])()rted as i'.,|(;i, of whom 502 were at ('harlestown, 207 at Biidgewater,
057 in the lloslon house oi" industry, 140 in the South IJoston lunise of
correction, 250 in tln^ lloston jaii, 2()(> in the C!ainbridge house of correc-
tion, 152 in the New JJedCdid house, of correitlion, and 112 in that at
Ips\vi(;h. The whole number in the jails was then 552 ; in the houses of
correction I,t2.'{: aii<l tiie aggregate, 3, 101, was the largest ever rej)orted
in Massaehusi't fs.
In the three large jiublie, refv)rma(oiies of JMassachusetts, the State
Itefbrm Seliools at West lioioiigh and Lancaster, and the Boston House
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 401
of Eefornuition, controlled by the city, the whole number of inmates,
January 1, 1873, was 725, namely: 297 boys at Westborouf]jh, 128 girls
at Lancaster, and 300 (boys 200, jiirls 40) at Boston. The average
number for the year 1872 was somiething more than this, namely : 267
at Westboroufth, 122 at Lancaster, 75 at the School-Ship, (now discon-
tiouetl,)and280atBoston; in all about 740. Theaveragenumberconfined
in prisons and reformatoriesin Massachusetts may therefore be stated in
round numbers at about 4,000, though there are a few small city reform-
schools which would bring the aggregate above that amount. In the pre-
ventive schools, such as the State Primary School at Monson, with an
average last year of 3G1, the House of the Angel Guardian, (a Roman
Catholic school,) in Boston, with an average of 175 pui)ils, the Boston
Farm School, with 100 pnjnls, and a few other establishments, there
were between 700 and 1,000 inmates. Therefore the constant jiopula-
tion of the penal, reformatory, and preventive establishments in Massa-
chusetts, public and private, may be taken as not exceeding 5,000, or
one in every 300 of the inhabitants.
The prisons.
1. The Charlestown state prison is one of the oldest in tke country,
having been begun in 1800, and opened in 1804. It has been conducted
on the Auburn, or silent congregate system, since 1827, when it was re-
built, but has since been much enlarged, containing now about COO
cells. A plan has been submitted to the legislature of 1873 for build-
ing a new state prison at a greater distance from Boston, and it is
probable that the Charlestown site will be abandoned within the next
five years.
No women have been sentenced to Charlestown for more than fifty
years, or since 1820, and no man is sentenced there for a less period
than one year. Of 502 convicts there, October 1, 1872, 02 were sen-
tenced for life, 11 for twenty years and upwards, 50 for ten years, 31
for })eriods between ten and twenty years, 106 for five years, 84 for pe-
riods between five and ten years, 104 for three years, 47 for periods be-
tween three and five years, and 65 for less than three years. The num-
ber of colored prisoners was 40; 97 were born in Ireland, 30 in Great
Britain, 21 in the British-American provinces, and 382 in the United
States ; of these, however, nearly one-half were probably of foreign pa-
rentage. Of the 562, 77 were recommitments, and of 160 convicts re-
ceived in 1872, 24 were recommitments. The whole number in prison
during the year was 703, of whom 19 died, 16 were pardoned, 3 sent to
lunatic hospitals, and 1 escaped. The average number in prison being
543, an average of 1*1 w ere reported as unfit for contract labor. The
other 452 convicts earned by contract labor the sum of $126,010, or
about $10,000 more than it cost to support the prison. The average price
per day for contract labor was 99 cents, which is believed to be 41 cents
less than its real value to the contractors. The expenses of the Charles-
town [uison for the year 1872 were about $116.,000, of w hich something less
than $800 was paid for the education of prisoners, about $37,000 for pro-
visions, arid $42,362 for the salaries of oflicers. A school numbering
from 100 to 150 convicts is held about two evenings in the week, and
there is a Sunday-school of something more than 100 convicts. The
number of volumes in the prison library is 2,236, of which about 100 are
daily lent to the convicts.
li. The Bridgewater state workhouse is a new institution, being cre-
ated in 1866, and opened the same yeariu the old buildings of the state
H. Ex. 185 36
402 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 8173
almshouse at Biidgewater, near Plymouth. Its iumates are mostly
drunkards, vagrants, prostitutes, &c., who apply to the State or to the
municipalities for support, and are sentenced to support themselves
by labor. A great majority of them are women, and i| is proposed
by Governor Washburn, iu his last message, now before the legis-
lature, to make this workhouse a prison for women exclusively. It is,
in fact, a prison of the same grade as the county houses of correction
and the Boston House of Industry. The whole number of convicts
therein 187li was 59G; the average number was 298, and the cost of
their support was $31,602. Their earnings from labor were $1,654, and
the net cost of their support was about $33,000.
III. The Boston House of Industry was established about forty years
ago, and is the city prison of Boston for vagrants, drunkards, prosti-
tutes, &G., containing more convicts than any other prison iu the State.
A majority of these are women, as in the state workhouse. The aver-
age number of both sexes in 1872 was 576, the cost of su[)porting them
$76,853, and the earnings from their labor $13,987, showing a net cost
of $62,866. This prison, like the South Boston House of Correction, is
controlled by the city authorities.
IV. The county prisons are numerous and various, there being four-
teen counties in Massachusetts, and each being entitled, should ic need
them, to maintain one or more jails, and as many houses of correction.
The distinction between these two classes of prisons in law is simply
that in our jails labor is not required, while it is compulsory in houses
of correction. But in practice (although a few persons are still sen-
tenced to jails) convicts'alone go to houses of correction, and persons
awaiting trial, or the execution of sentence, remain iu jails. Where
the sentence is a fine, as in more than half the cases tried in Massachu-
setts it probably is, the person fined, if unable or unwilling to pay it,
generally goes to jail for a short tinie. There are, in fact, eighteen
jails and sixteen houses of correction in the fourteen counties, which
were used as prisons in 1872; but of these only four jails (at Boston,
Salem, Lowell, and Newburyport) and two houses of correction (at Ips-
wich and South Boston) were separate establishments. The other
fourteen county prisons contained each a jail and house of correction
under the same roof and management, so that there are but twenty dis-
tinct county i)risons, which are located two at Boston, and one each at
Barnstable, IMttsfield, New Bedford, Edgartown, Ipswich, Lawrence,
Newbury i)()rt, Salem, Greenfield, Springfield, Northampton, Cambridge,
Lowell, Nantucket, Dcdliain, Plymouth, Fitchburgh, and Worcester.
At Taunton a new jail is building, to re[)lace an old one. The number
of prisoners in these twenty establislmu'uts ranges from one to four
hundr(Ml and fifty in each, and almost every variety of prison architec-
ture and prison management, except the best, may be found in them.
The larg('st jail is in iioston, situated on the Charles Kiver, between
the two l)ridges leading to Caml)ri<lge, and containing an average of
more than tw(^ hundred prisoners, whose supi)ort in 1872 cost not far
from $25,000, or nearly $2.50 a week jxr capita. The largest house of
correction is also in lioston, with an average number of convicts, in
1872, of 120, who eaiiied $7,7.'>3 above their expenses. The whole num-
ber commitled lo all the jails was above (),000, to tlui houses of correc-
tion above 5,000, but ni;iny wer<', identical in tin; two classes of i)risons.
The average, number in all the jails was 12!> ; in all the houses of cor-
rection, i,.')72; in all the county jtrisons, 1,801. The cost of all these,
above their earnings, was $151,711. There was ])aid for officers' sal-
aries in these county pnsons, $82,000; for provisions, $103,000; for
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 403
purposes of education, mostly chaplains' salaries, $2,700; for clothing
and bedding, $21,500; for fuel and lights, $40,000. The average net
cost for each prisoner was within a fraction of $SG a year, or nearly
$1.70 a week.
The gross expenditure was $283,847, and the earnings from labor
$129,130.. The difference between these two aggregates represents the
net cost, as above given. A little more than one in ten of the jail
l^risoners are women, and nearly one third of these are in the houses of
correction. More than one-half of both sexes were foreign born, and
probably four-fifths were of foreign parentage.
An attempt is now making, in the legislature of 1873, to change
materially the management of the county prisons. To show the need
of some better system than exists at present, a passage may be quoted
from a paper submitted from the United States to the London Prison
Congress of last July :
There is no better illustration, probably, of the ^Yhirnsical lack of all proper
ceutralization of prison authority in the United States, than the present condition of
the laws and their admiuistratlon, as regards i)rison inspection and manaoeiuent iu
Massachusetts — the State which is ofreu considered, and certainly considers itself, as
foremost in prison discipline, not only in America, but in the whole world. In some
respects, no doubt, Massachnsetts holds an advanced position, but whether this is true
of her system of prison management may be judged from the facts now to be stated.
Within her borders are three distinct classes of prisons — those of the State, of the
fourteen coiinties, and of the cities and towns. There are two state prisons, viz, at
Charlestown, near Boston, and at Bridgewater, not far from Plymouth, wholly distinct
in their management, except that hhe board of State charities, which has the power
of discharge at Bridgewater, has the general inspection of both, but with no authority
to appoint otttcers or to establish rules in either. The governor and council of the
State have also general powers of inspection, and can pardon convicts iu the Charles-
town prison, as well as appoint the chief ofHcers of both state prisons. But, besidea
these two boards of inspection, there is also a board of inspectors for Charlestown, and
another for Bridgewater, quite independent of each other; and these two boards, iu
concert witii the warden or master of either prison, manage all the details of its affairs,
and report both to the governor of the State and to the board of State charities.
There is a prison commission also, which has no duties concerning the Charlestown
prison, but which may visit and inspect the other; there is an " advisory board" of
ladies, to assist the prison comnnssion ; and, finally, there is every year a prison com-
mittee of the State legislature, which visits and reports upon both state prTsons, but
has no power to do anything further. Thus there are seven distinct commissions to
look after these two prisons, including in all no less than thirty-seven official persons,
all more or less charged with the duty of inspection, but without any practical co-
operation with, or subordination to, each other. Then there are fonrteen counties in
the State, each containing one jail, and several containing two or three each, which
are nnder the control of the county sheriffs, chosen by the people, for terms of three
years, and of a board of commissioners in each county chosen in the same way. But
iu the largest county (Suffolk) and the smallest (Nantucket) there are no county com-
missioners, the municipal governments of Boston and of Nantucket Town taking their
place. These jails are also iuspected by the board of charities (when it chooses) and
by the prison commission, the advisory board, and the prison committee of the leo-is-
lature; and may be inspected by the governor, who has power to remove the county
sheriffs. There are nineteen of these jails, each controlled and inspected bv six dif-
ferent boards, including in all about seventy-tive official persons. Then there are
fifteen other county prisons for convicts, called houses of correction, thirteen of which
are managed by the county commissioners above mentioned ; one by the " selectmen "
of Nantucket Town; and one, the largest of all, by a Boston board, called the directors
of public institutions of the city of Boston ; which also has under its control another
great Boston prison, known as the house of industry. In each county the commissioners
appoint another board, called overseers of the house of correction, who are to inspect
those prisons and have some control of their management; these number in all about
forty, and the Boston board has twelve members, thus adding some fifty more official
persons to the long list. All the houses of correction may be visited and inspected by
the board of charities, the prison commission, the advisory board, and the prison com-
mittee, as well as each by its own overseers and commissioners, or directors, and by
.the governor and council, who have the pardoning power jointly with the overseers;
so that there are eight distiuct boards, comprising about li<50 persons for these fifteen
404 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
prisons. The Boston house of industry, howerer, is exempt from all inspection save
by its own directors and the prison conunittee of the legislature. Next come the city
and town guard houses, or police stations, of which, perhaps, there are one hundred
and twentj^ in the whole State, under the charge of the municipal governments, and
rarely iuvspected by anybody else. The managers of these small prisons probably num-
ber about 300, and are annually elected by the people. Finally, there ate the city and
town work-houses, large and small, numbering, perhaps, a dozen in all, and managed
by a few of the same 300 municipal officers. In all, we may count up for the Massa-
chusetts prisons not less than 350 different official persons concerned in their manage-
ment and inspection; the number of prisoners in them all never exceeding 3,.500 at
any one time.
From this we might infer that the Massachusetts prisons were ihoroughly inspected,
however perplexiug might bo the system under which it was done. But, in fact, there
is no municipal inspector who has been in all the municipal prisons; no county inspector
who has been in all the county prisons; few State inspectors who have been in all the
county prisons or any of the municipal ones; and no one official person in the State
who has ever visited half of the prisons it contains. Consequently, there is no proper
knowledge anywhere of the relation of one part of the prison system to the rest, and
no proper system at all, but only a confusion of laws, rules, boards, and details. There
are wheels in plenty, and wheels within wheels, more than the sacred prophet saw in
his vision; but there is no "spirit within the wheels" by which they are regulated
and made to move harmoniously. Probably no other State enjoys so complicated and
various a prison system as Massachusetts, in which are as many devices and contriv-
ances as in the cabinet where the Abbe Sieyes, in Burke's famous satire, manufactured
constitutions for France. Unfortunately these devices, however ingenious, result in
neutralizing responsibility, deadening the public vigilance, and opening the door to
culpable neglect and to petty corruption. The instruction, the reformation, the disci-
pline, and even the life of poor prisoners may be sacriliced in the medley and delay of
so much legal machinery; for each of these important things, like Johnson's hero, is
Condemned, a needy supplicant, to wait
Wliilo ladies iuteipose and boardu debate.
In connection with the Massachusetts prisons, three isolated facts otfer themselves
to the recollection of the present writer, not connected by any necessary chain of cause
and effect with the system just described, but perhaps illustrative of it. During a
debate concerning one phase of the prison question in the Massachusetts legislature on
the Gth of May last, a Boston member, who had probably never seen the inside of ten
among the 150 prisons of his State remarked complacently, and evidently with the
approval of the house, that "Massachusetts had the best prison system in the Avorld."
A few weeks previous — in consequence of the acceptance of a gift by the highest prison
superintendent in the State, at the hands of a contractor, who gave it for the manifest
purpose ©f securiug a favorable bargain for himself from the prison government — the
last touch had been given to tiiis perfect system, in the same legislature, by the passage
of a law forbidding anj^ prison officer to take bribes. And just a week after the speech
above cited, that is on the 13th of May, the grandson of one of the most illustrious
statesmen of Massachusetts in former years, a youth of amiable character, but unfortu-
nate habits, was fatally burned in a Boston guard house, through the neglect of the
policomati who had locked hiui up there, alone and helpless, and in the midst of com-
bustible materials. Thus, on ouo side of the official eulogist is corruption in the chief
officer of the highest prison, long undetected and still unpunished ; while on the other
side is a horrible casualty in the lowest prison, of which official uegligouce was the
direct cause. It may not be unjust to consider these events as a commentary on the
intricate prison system of Massachusetts, itself the successive growth of umny years
epciiit in trying to avoid what can alone govern prisons well, a central, simple, aud
vigilant method of control aud inspection.
In tlio a])ove statement some repetitions of what had before been said
may bo ii()ti(;ed; and also soaie additional facts and some discrepancies
as to the nniiili(;r of county prisons. Tiie latter resnlt from the varying'
nse ot these piison buildings in smicessive years, and are only a])parent
discr('i)ancies. Jn tiie main tlie passaiL^o (jnoted is still trnc to tin; facts;
hut sliould the rccommemiations of Governor Washbnrii and of the
prison commission l)e accepted by the le,i?islature, mnch of this ridiciilons
jnmble of i)etty Jinthoritics vvoidd bo done away with. The plan is to
brin^ all the connty jjrisons and the Boston House of Indnstiy under
HtiiUt coidrol, by esta.l)lishiiis a system of distri(;t prisons, the details of
which arc set foitli in the report of the Massachiiselts prison commission-
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 405
ers forl872, lately submitted to the legislature. The districts proposed are
seven in number, of very unequal population and criminal conditions, but
arranged with reference to the present county lines, and to the prison
buildings, which will continue to be occui)ied, though with a dilferent
classification of prisoners, if the new plan is adopted. The districts pro-
posed are Suftolk and Norfolk, with a population, in 1870, of 300,245,
but now increased to 380,000, and containing four prisons, three in Bos-
ton and one in Dedham; Middlesex, with a population, in 1870, of 274,-
353, now increased to nearly 300,000, with two ])risons, at Cambridge
and at Lowell; Essex, with a population of 200,843 in 1870, now in-
creased to 210,000, with two prisons, at Lawrence and at Salem; Wor-
cester, with a population, in 1870, of 192,710, now increased to more
than 200,000, and containing two prisons, at Worcester and at Fitch-
burgh ; Southern Massachusetts, including the five counties of Uarnstable,
Bristol, Plymouth, Dukes, and Nantucket, with a population, in 1870,
of 208,905, now increased to 215,000; the Connecticut Valley, including
the three counties of Hampden, Hampshire, ami Franklin, with a popu-
lation, in 1870, of 155,432, now iucreas^d to 100,000; and Berkshire, the
seventh and last district, with a population, in 1870, of 04,827, now in-
creased to 08,000. The prison population of these seven districts, Octo-
ber 1, 1872, was 1,400 in the Suftolk district, 358 in Middlesex, 300 in
Essex, 180 in Southern Massachusetts, (exclusive of 207 at Bridgewater,)
172 in Worcester, 130 in the Connecticut Valley, and 74 in Berkshire;
in all 2,032, exclusive of the 829 at Charlestowu and Bridgewater, under
State control.
The Southern Massachusetts district will have two chief prisons, at
New Bedford and at Taunton, with small jails at Plymouth, Barnstable,
Edgartown. and Nantucket; the Connecticut Valley district two chief
prisons, at Springfield and at Northampton, with a jail at Greenfield;
and the Berkshire district one prison, comprising jail, work-house, and
house of correction, under a single roof. In each of the six larger dis-
tricts there is to be, by this plan, a work-house and a house of correc-
tion in separate buildings, and generally in different cities, the former for
vagrants, drunkards, &c., who now make up more than half our convicts,
and the latter for more heinous offenders. In each prison will be jail-
cells, to be used as the jails now are, except Jthat in Suffolk County the
Boston jail will receive all such prisoners. Each of the seven houses of
correction is to be governed by a resident master, appointed by the
.governor and council, and each master is to appoint a resident deputy
to govern the work- house in his district. The jails are to remain in
part under the control of the county sheriffs, as at present.
The new scheme is by no means free from complications and incon-
sistencies, and is probably too extensive to be carried as a whole; but
it is a great improvement on the present system, and some part of it
will probably soon be adopted. Gradually the superior advantages of
district prisons over county prisons will be seen, a,nd the so much needed
classification of prisoners, now almost wholly neglected in Massachusetts,
can in time be attained. With that will come better prison schools, a
better-organized system of labor, and more thorough and therefore more
successful efforts to make our prisons truly reformatory. At present
they are so only to a very slight degree ; nor do they perceptibly check
crime, which, since 1804, has apparently increasedjn a much greater ratio
than our population. In 1805 there were less than 2,000 inmates of all
the Massachusetts prisons; five years later, October 1, 1870, there were
3,121: at the same date in 1871 there were 3,224; m 1872,3,401; and
at the beginning of 1873 about 3,280, as has been said. The average
406 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF J 873.
prison population 111 1870, ^A'as 2,971; in 1871, 3,145i; and in 1872,3,218.
There has, therefore, been in seven years an apparent increase of more
than GO per cent, in the number of criminals, while the populaticJn has
not gained more than 25 per cent.
Trisjus for women.
There is not in Massachusetts, nor has there ever been, a distinct
l)risou for women, though the average number of women in prison here
has been from GOO to 800 for the last eight years. Of the prisoners in
confinement October 1, 1870, 751 were women ; at the same date in 1871,
758 were women; October 1, 1872, there were 770 women in prison. The
recommendations of Governor Washburn, seconded by the prison com-
mission, include the conversion of the State work-house at Bridgewater
into a State prison for women alone, to which those now in the county
and city prisons would be sent. It is probable that this plan, which
meets with much popular favor, will be put in practice the present year
Prison scJiools.
Little has yet been done in Massachusetts to give school instruction
to prisoners. The importance of this branch of prison discipline has
been urged upon the legislature and the i^rison ofticers bj^ the board of
State charities ever since 1805, and, in consequence, a few prison schools
have been opened. That at Charlestown is the largest and the most
useful, but is far from equaling, either in plan or management, the ex-
cellent schools of jMr. Biockway, at Detroit. In the county prisons and
at the Bridgewater work-house a few prisoners have received instruc-
tion. But the officers, as a rule, do not understand the necessity for
prison schools, and the contractors are practically opposed to them.
Should the proposed (ihanges in our prison system be made, the educa-
tion of i^risoners could and probably v\^ould be much better cared for.
Cost of our iirisons.
The cost of the present lirison buildings and lands, incurred during
the last seventy-three years, cannot have been less than $3,000,000, al-
though an exact computation is impossible. About a third part of this
sum has been paid for construction, enlargement, »&c., at the Charles-
town prison alone ; and the estimated cost of a reconstruction of that
prison at Newton, or in some other convenient locality near ]3oston, is a
million of dollars, to bo reimbursed in great part bv the sale of the
estate at Charlestown. The annual interest on $3,00(),000 is $180,000,
or an average for each prisoner of more than $50 a year, or about a dol-
lar a week. The actual current expenses of the ])risons above named,
for the year ending Octobei- 1, 1S72, were about $511,000, to wliich,
if w(! add tin; cost ol' maintaining the one hundred and thirty town and
city prisons for t('n)]»orary detention or occasional sentence of ])etty
offenders, we shall June, a total of about $550,000. I^'rom this should
be deducted the, earnings from labor of convicts, fees of visitors,
and jtetty sales, amounting, in the year 1872, to about $275,000;
leaving, as the net c(»?;t of maintaining some ,".,300 i)risoners, (the con-
stant average,) about $275,000, or more than $80 ea(;h. This is a
largei- net cost and a greater number of i)iisoiiers than for several years
l)ast, but the prison earnings ani also greater than in any year before.
In the county prisr)iis these earnings have very much increased since
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OP^ MASSACHUSETTS. 407
the close of the war. In 18G5, witli an nxera^e immber of 1,050, the
county prison earnings were but $34,094; in 1808 tliey had more than
doubled, being $69,025 for 1,554 prisoners; and now tliey have almost
doubled again, being $129,180 for 1,850 prisoners. Yet even now they
are from $50,000 to $100,000 less than they might be if the county pris-
ons were properly classified, and the most thorough labor system em-
ployed. We see "that 543 convicts at Charlestowu have earned almost as
much as 1,850 in the county prisons; or to be more exact, as much as 1,370
convicts in 16 houses of correction, for the jail prisoners, mostly waiting
trial, are not compelled to labor. There is no good reason why, with
the exception of these jail prisoners, averaging from 400 to 500, and
costing from $75,000 to $100,000 a year for their support, the whole
annual cost of our ]>risons should not be paid by the labor of the con-
victs, who would thus become self-supporting. Few of them are too
feeble to do any work, more than two thirds of them are men, and the
demand for such work as they can do is constant and remunerative.
The largest contractors for prison labor in the State, the Tucker Manu-
facturing Company, who grumbled because the authorities made them
pay $1 a day for skilled mechanics, have lately paid to another contractor
$15,000 for the right to use his 100 men at 90 cents a day, for a single
year. This is about 50 cents a day additional, or $1.40 for each man,
which the state prison inspectors say is a fair contract price for them.
Probably they earn for the contractor at least $2 a day. In the county
prisons the labor is not so well trained nor so valuable, but at the South
Boston house of correction the whole number, some 450, both men and
women, earn their support, and something more; and the surplus that
might be earned by the strong and more skillful would make good the
deficit on the weaker and worse trained workmen in the county prisons.
At the same time, such a classification of the convicts as would make
their labor most profitable would render it easier to give them school
instruction, religious discipline, sanitary advantages, and all that tends
to make prison life reformatory.
The reformatories.
If an examination of the Massachusetts prisons is far from satisfactory,
and shows that they need immediate and thorough re-organization, this
is by no means the case with the reformatories for young offenders.
These were never in so bad a condition as our prisons, and they have
been for several years growing better, and doing their work more thor-
oughly. The nautical reformatory, or school-ship, which had outlived
its usefulness, and become a burden instead of a help to the reformatory
work of the State, was finally abolished in July, 1872; the prevent-
ive institution at Monson, known as the State Primary School, estab-
lished by law in 1866, has gone steadily forward in a very useful work;
while the" Visiting Agency," providing homes in families for young
delinquents, and neglected or orphan children, has almost revolution-
ized the old policy of the State and of the courts. All these changes
may be said to have grown out of the action taken by the board of
charities, which first established a visiting agency in 1866, in connection
with the Monson Primary School, and first called attention to the de-
fective condition of the nautical reformatory in the same year. In the
six years that have since gone by, such changes have taken i^lace as
would scarcely be credited but for the unimpeachable evidence of sta-
tistics. In 1867, when the new policy first began to take effect, the
average number of j)upils at the State reformatories was 752, and the
408 NATIONAL PRISON EEFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
sum drawn from the State for their support was more than $140,000 ; in
1872, the average number of pupils was but 401, including 75 on board
the school-ship, and the sum drawn from the treasury for their support
was but $96,095, including $23,703 for the school-ship, now abolished.
During the current year, 1873, the average number of pupils will scarcely
equal 400, and the sum drawn from the treasury will be but little more
than $70,000, or half what it was six years ago. In the mean time our
population has increased about 200,000, while juvenile crime has de-
creased. Especially siuce 1870, when the existing visiting agency was
established by statute, and had its powers greatly enlarged, this
decrease has been manifest. On the 1st of October, 18G9, there were 97
children under seventeen in the county prisons ; a year later there were
but 54 ; in October, 1871, but 33, and on the 1st of last October only
25. At the same time there is at least twice the personal attention given
by pnblic officers to the circumstances and temptations of young offend-
ers and neglected children ; the moral condition of the whole class from
which these culprits come receives more consideration, both from the
authorities and the community in general ; and the result, as we now
see it, is eminently gratifying. The reports of the State Visiting Agent,
Mr. Tufts, may well be consulted for further information in regard to
the new policy in Massachusetts, and its good eflects. This policy is
based upon the belief that much of the vice and crime among the young-
comes from a lack of attention to their individual circumstances, and
the want of a good home ; and the main object of the State, in its deal-
ings with neglected and culpable children, is to find them good homes.
This is done to a much greater extent than formerly, and the persons
who receive these children are so held to such a constant responsibility,
that the abuse of children i)laced out from the public establishments is
much less than it used to be. The State pays less money, the com-
munity is better protected from juvenile crime, the children themselves
are better cared for, and their employers are kept from injustice and the
oppression which ''maketh a wise man mad'' — much more a child who
has little chance to learn wisdom. AVhile there are still many evils to
bo corrected, and some that may have come in with the new i)olicy, its
general results are everywhere acknowledged to be happy.
The State reformatories.
There are now but two of these : the reform school for boys at West-
borough, founded by the late Theodore Lyman, in 1848, and still aided
by a portion of his endowment, but mainly sup[)orted by the State; and
the industrial scliool (or girls, at l^iincaster, founded in 185G. The school-
ship, or nautical reformatory, established in 18'J0, was closed in July,
1872, and a few of its boys are still held in confinement at Westborough.
The limit of age for admission at Westborough, which used to be four-
teen years, is now s(»vcnteen, and, on the other hand, fewer young boys
are sent thither. The consequcMice is that the average age of the
inmates is considciably increased, and when the board of (charities last
viKit(!d Wesfborougii, (.lannary 11, 1873,) more than three fifths of the
303 boys i)resent W(Me over fifteciu years old. The average age of admis-
sion would seem to b(( now about thirteen and one-half years, or from
one to two years greatei- Ihan formerly. During the- year ending Octo-
ber J, 1872, the whole number at any finui in the school was 174; but of
these ordy 90 were new eommif ments, !.'> were received from the school-
shij) and from Monson, and 09 were returned to the school from various
I)lace8. The average nundxr during the year was 207; the number
REFORMATORY INSTITUTIONS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 409
October 1, 1872, was 254; and January 1, 1873, it was 297. The eatab-
lishnient, as for several years past, has «i main buililing where about 200
boys are kept together, under lock and key, and three family houses, in
which about 75 boys are generally kept and trusted with greater free-
dom. There are seven school-rooms, and during most of the year seven
schools are kept up. The labor of the boys is about equally divided
between the farm of 203 acres and the mechanical work of chair-seating.
The cash earnings from lab@r in 1872 were $8,113, or about $30 for each
boy. For the current year they are likely to be $10,000, being $2,000
for the tirst quarter of the official year, from October, 1872, to January,
1873. The whole expenditures in 1872 were $50,531, including $1,309
paid from the income of the Lyman fund, now amounting to more than
$30,000. From this should be deducted the earnings from labor and
sales, amounting to $8,188, leaving the net cost of supporting 207 boys
$42,010, or about $3 a week for each boy. Of this net cost, however,
the State treasury paid but $33,375, the sum of $7,302 being paid by
cities and towns for the partial support of their boys, and $1,309 coming
from an invested fund.
The girls' industrial school at Lancaster is conducted wholly on the
family system ; the 122 girls, making up the average number for 1872,
residing in five family houses, each under the charge of a matron, and
each containing a school and school-teacher. The whole number at
Lancaster during the year was 171 ; the number, October 1, 1872, was
121 ; and January 1, 1873, it was 128. Much attention is paid to the
school exercises and to religious instruction, less to labor, especially to
productive earnings. The age of the pupils increases, as at Westbor-
ough, and for similar reasons. In both schools the difficulty of mana-
ging and reforming the pupils is thereby increased. A majority of the
girls at Lancaster are now persons who have lost their chastity, and a
consi<lerable number of them have been prostitutes. In this respect
the school has changed for the worse; but it probably renders as great
a service as ever to the community. The average age of girls when
committed is about fourteen, and they remain for about two years at
Lancaster, on an average. A farm of 185 acres is connected with the
school, but the girls do little in horticulture or the care of the dairy.
For their support in 1872, $23,987 was drawn from the State treasury,
and may be assumed as the cost of the school for the year. The earn-
ings from labor were $543.03, or nearly $4.50 for each girl ; the net cost
for the year was about $22,770, or $3.00 a week for each girl. The
towns and cities paid $3,280, however, so that the net cost to the State
treasury was about $19,500. During the present year the net cost of
both the State reformatories to the State treasury will probably be but
little more than $50,000, while the cities and towns, which now pay
about a sixth part of the expense of the children sent from them, will
contribute some $10,000 more, and the income of invested funds will
add $1,500 more.
Both the State reformatories are managed by boards of trustees,
seven at Westborougli, and five at Lancaster, appointed by the gov-
ernor of the State. The other large public reformatory, the Boston
house of reformation, which dates back to 1820, is controlled by the
city " board of directors for public institutions," who also manage the
city prisons. With one of these prisons the house of reformation is
connected, being situated on Deer Island, in Boston harbor. The
boys in this reformatory are under the same roof with the house-of-
industry convicts, but the girls are in a smaller house close by. The
410 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
whole mimber of i^upils in a year is about 500, of whom about ODe-
eiglith are girls.
The average number in 1872 was 312 ; and the number January 1,
1873, was about 300 of both sexes. No earnings are separately reported
in this reformatory, nor is its annual cost very exactly given ; it is
probably about $35,000, or somewhat less than at Westborough. The
number of pupils in these three reformatories at the i)resent time is not
far from 720 ; a few years ago it was more than 1,000 in the four large
public reformatories then existing. At Lowell and several of the other
cities there are small municipal reformatories or truant-schools, to which
juvenile offenders are sentenced; the average number of such sentenced
children in the whole State is perhaps 100 ; making above 800 children
now held in public reformatories. The "House of the Angel Guardian"
is a private Catholic reformatory, with, perhaps, 175 boys in it, but they
are not nuder sentence. It is located at Iloxbury, within the city limits
of Boston.
Preventive agencies.
The most important means of prevention furnished by the State to
check juvenile crime are the State primary school at Monson and the
State visiting agency, both dating from 1866, but the latter established
by special law only since 1869. This has already been spoken of, and
any further information concerning it that may be needed will be found
in the annual reports of the board of charities, of vrhich it is a depart-
ment. The Monson school holds a place of its own among the public
establishments of Massachusetts, and, since last June, when it was sep-
arated from the almshouse with which it had been joined, to its great dis-
advantage, has a special claim upon the consideration of persons who
have at heart or on their hands the care of poor children. The Mon-
son school is filled with sons and daughters of the poor— children who,
if neglected, would grow up to be paupers and criminals, as many of their
relatives have. Formerly such children were themselves esteemed i)au-
pers and treated as such ; now they are by law, and will soon become
by custom, the State's wards and pupils, free from any stigma of panper-
ism, and often outgrowing their hereditary tendencies and the unfor-
tunate associations of their early childhood. The school now occupies
exclusively the premises of the former State almshouse, and has a farm
of 230 acres. The buildings have been tlioroughly repaired and greatly
improved; they are now warmed by steam, lighted by gas, sup])lied
with a new laundi-y, bath-rooms, and other conveniences — none of them
too good for the use of tlx'se poor children. The number of diiferent
]»ui)ils (hiring the year 1872 was about 570; the average number 361,
the numl)(!r remaining October 1, 1872, .'Ml, and on January 1, 1873,
357. A little more than a fourth of these pupils are girls. Their aver-
age age is between nine and ten, and few are allowed to remain beyond
the ag(; of sixteen. They are sent to INIonson from the State almshouse, or
])l;iced there by the visiting agent, when he believes they do not need
the icstraints of Westborougli or Tjancaster, and has no family on liis
list siiitabh; to receive them. The average attendance in the sixschool-
looms (biiing tin; year was .311 ; the cost of sui)p()rling tlu^ ])ui)ils of the
jtrimaiy school was something more than $10,000, which was ])aid wholly
iif)m tlie State treasiii-y. 'i'lie, labor ol" tlu^ ])npils <lo<'s something to
<limiiii.sh the cost of their maint<Miance, which is about $2.50 a week for
each child; l)ut their cash earnings have been small and are not likely
to increase gieatly. ^J'lie sui)('rint<'n(lent is now about to introduce the
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF MICHIGAN. 411
same employment that is pursued at Westborougli — cliaii-seating. It
is the rule of the establishnient to place the pupils in families, as soon
as tliey can be provided with suitable places, which prevents the long
continuance in school of any except the very young or the less desirable
children.
The Boston farm school is a private charity, receiving and supporting
about one hundred poor children at a time. It has existed nearly forty
years in its present form and location, Thompson's Island, near South
Boston, and exercises a good influence, so far as its means extend. Its
pupils are not under sentence, nor are they boys who have committed
offenses, generally speaking. In this respect they resemble the pupils
atMonson: but the farm-school boys are of a better stock, physically,
mentally, and morally, than those at Monson. There are other private
charities, or|)han homes, t&c, which do in a less degree, and for younger
children, what the farm school does.
Discharged prisoners.
There are two societies in Massachusetts which aid discharged pris-
oners; and both have in former years received State appropriations.
The older is the "Prisoners' Aid Society" or " Agency for Discharged
Convicts," to which the State in 1871 made an appropriation of $3,000,
the 'greater part of which went to pay the salary of the agent. The
other is a society in aid of women discharged from prison, and main-
tains the "Temporary Asylum for Discharged Female Prisoners" at
Dedham. Both societies are doing a good work on rather a small scale,
but more and more each year. Could these agencies be connected, as
they are in Ireland, with the government and the school-instruction
of the main prisons, more could be done by them to assist the convict
in regaining by an honest course the good opinion of society.
Few general remarks have been made in tliis report, because the whole
subject of our penal and reformatory establishments has been frequently
discussed in the reports of the board of charities and the prison com-
missioners. Mr. Edward L. Pierce, secretary of the board, who con-
veys this paper to the congress, has made himself familiar both with
the principles and the details of the subject-matter, and will doubtless
answer an}- questions or make any explanations which may be desired.
10. MiCHiaAN.
By Hon. C. L Walker, chairman of the hoard of commissioners for the oeneral supervision of
penal, pauper, charitahle, and reformatory institutions of the State of Michigan.
The State of Michigan ranks eleventh in population of the States of
the American Union. It is rapidly growing, having increased the num-
ber of its inhabitants more than one-third within the last ten years. It
has a fertile soil, is rich in agricultural and mineral v/ealth,is traversed
by a net-work of railroads, and nearly encircled by inland seas, giving
it commercial advantages which but few States possess. Its laws are
liberal, and bespeak an advanced public sentiment, many of the old
forms of jurisprudence, like capital punishment and the grand-jury s^'s-
tem, having been abolished, and with favorable results. Its institutions
are established upon a broad basis, and wisely adai)ted for such im-
provements as time and experience may prove worthy of adoption.
412 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
Within the last year crime has decreased within its limits, a result, per-
haps, in a great measure due to the increased efficiency of these insti-
tutions, and to the use of more effective means for the proper discipline
of offenders.
The preventive and penal system of the State for the repression of
crime may be summed up in brief as follows :
First. Prevention of the increase of criminals, by provision, through
a State institution, for the training and education of truant, vagrant,
and de})eudent children ; they being the great source from whence crime
draws recruits to its ranks.
Second. The reform school for juveniles of tender years, who have
actually committed crime, and whose guilt has been duly proven.
Third. The jail for the detention of prisoners, arrested and charged
with the commission of crime, until they can be tried ; and for the safe
keeping of such as have been tried and found guilty, until they can be
conveyed to the place of punishment ; and for the imprisonment of
l)etty offenders.
Fourth. The Detroit house of correction, as an intermediate prison
or work-house for persons convicted of minor offenses or of grave
charges, who give hope of reformation.
Fifth. The state prison for confirmed or dangerous criminals, con-
victed of high crimes.
[N. B. — At this point, the report goes at some length into a statement
of the character and objects of the first of the above-named institutions.
A special report on the same subject was also handed in by the Hon. C.
D. Eaudall, secretary and treasurer of the commissioners in charge of
the institution, who, as chairman of the joint legislative committee of
1871, on penal, reformatory, and charitable institutions, was chiefly in-
strumental in originating this very important agency in the prevention
of crime. But, as Mr. Brockway, reporting for the committee on prison
discipline, (see p. 332,) has fully explained this institution, both state-
ments are omitted here for economy of space. — E. C. W.]
The reform school receives boys between the ages of ten and sixteen
years who have been convicted of the commission of crime. They are
sent to the school until they reach the age of twenty-one years, but most
of them are dis(;harged long before they arrive at their majority, being
retained in the institution oid^^ an average period of about three years.
Farming has received a large share of attention, and many of the
larger boys'are mainly'employed at it.
The institution is designed to reform rathet than to punish those com-
mitted to its charge, and religious and secular instruction, as well as
labor, are relied u[)on as ]>rominent agencies in the work of reclama-
tion. Every boy is required to attend school a stated number of hours
eacii week day. Excellent progress is made. There is a fair library
and ])icture gallery attached.
This institution is conducted on the congregate and family system
combiru'd. In addition to the large l)uiUlings occupied by most of the
boys, two "family houses" receive the bett(;r class, whoare graded into
them, and th(M(^ have more freedom and nearly all the |)rivileges of a
good home. Tliey eat at the same table witli tlic family, have large
bedrooms, and arc treated <|uite as well as boys generally are on agood
farm. The scdiool is doing an excellent woik in saving numbers from a
lif(^ of Clinic.
The St;it(' of Michigan is divided into seventy counties, most of which
liave jails. I'he jails contain ;in avcirage population of about threehun-
dred persons, and foi- their su)»erintenden('e and care em[)Ioy a force of
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF MICHIGAN. 413
about oue hundred and fifty persons. In construction and appearance
they are very unlike. They vary from the cheap log pen to expensive,
showy, and imposing edifices, some costing less than one hundred dol-
lars, others fifty or sixty thousand. In the majority of them the safe-
keeping of prisoners seems to have been the principal object in their
construction, yet most are insecure for the detention of skillful and dan-
gerous criminals. Breaking jail is of frequent occurrence, and without
a great deal of watching, the adroit rogue is quite apt to find his way
out.
A small cell, destitute of furniture or decent bedding, fronting on a
hall or corridor five or six feet in width, without much light or proper
means of ventilation, and so constructed as to deprive the occupant of
a full supply of that necessity to health, pure air, constitutes the apart-
ment generally provided for a prisoner. In some of them two, and even
three, persons are lodged in bunks, one above tlie other. The air in
these cells is frequently foul from the odors of the privy, and the supply
of light in many of them is so insufficient that those confined therein
can only with difficulty see to read in the day-time. In some of the jails
prisoners are locked up in the cells (many of which are damp and musty)
all the time, but in the most of them they mingle together promiscuously
in the corridor during the day, and are only locked in separate cells at
night.
The prisoners have no work, no instruction, nothing to do but to atBuse
themselves as best they can. Here are to be found in intimate associa-
tion the old offender and the wayward youth, the former relating his
exploits, glorying in his crimes, and inspiring the latter with a desire
for similar adventures. The novice is thus made familiar with the " tricks
of the trade," and goes forth prepared to operate with all the skill of the
accomplished rascal, save experience.
In the best and most expensive jails, as well as in the poorest, this
association is of daily occurrence. In the most costly, during the present
year, we have witnessed wayward little girls caged up with notorious
prostitutes, and truant boys made the companions of degraded and des-
perate characters. In the very nature of things, imprisonment without
labor, and the unrestrained association of offenders of different grades,
must have the effect to increase rather than diminish the number of
criminals.
While most of our jails are tolerably clean, some of them scrupulously
so, there are others that are in a filthy condition — dirt, vermin, and dis-
order reigning supreme. Scarcely any have bathing facilities, and in
some, water for the ordinary purpose of washing the hands and face is
not always to be had.
In not a few of the jails prisoners are required to wash and iron their
own under garments, or go witbout clean clothes; and some under such
circumstances have gone for months without clean shirts. The effect
of confinement under these circumstances is to make men filthy and
degraded.
Persons violently insane may frequently be found in our jails for the
want of other places for their safekeeping ; and in some of them there
is no provision for a separation of the sexes.
Witnesses and debtors, guilty of no crime whatever, are sometimes for
months shut up with the vilest felons, and theinnoceut and the guilty are
thus mixed together. Instead of presuming every man innocent until he
is duly tried and his guilt proven, our manner of treating men in jail who
are awaiting trial seems to presume them guilty and sent to the jail for
punishment instead of detention. A large proportion of those commit-
414 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
ted are, on examination or trial, acquitted, and thus innocent men merely
suspected of crime are thrown into these jails, and caged and cared for
in a manner disgraceful to our civilization.
These statements briefly present the true condition of many of our
jails, and we think an examination of tliem must satisfy any fair-minded
man that, as generally conducted, they are simply training schools to
make adepts in crime. We have yet to leaxn a single instance where
a person has been bettered or reformed by a committal to jail, while, on
the other hand, we can point to numbers who we believe have been
made worse thereby.
The Detroit house of correction, although a municipal prison, owned
and controlled by the city of Detroit, in which the State has no direct
interest of ownership, is nevertheless entitled to be ranked among the
foremost of our State penal institutions, for the reason that it receives
annually from all parts of the State, as well as from the city of Detroit,
criminals convicted of misdemeanors, and forms one of the most impor-
tant links in our Avhole prison system, being especially adai)ted for that
class of oifenders who ought not to be committed to the jails or to the
state penitentiary. Besides, this is the only prison that receives to any
considerable extent the female convicts of the State. It has acquired an
extended reputation, and is recognized throughout the country as a
model institution of its kind. With a superintendent who has made the
management of prisons not only a study but the practical business of
years, devoting all his best energies to the work, this prison has been
in many respects a remarkable success.
The house of correction has not only proved self-sustaining, but
during its nine years' existence has earned $103,000 over and above cur-
rent expenses of every kind.
Prisoners in this institution are principally employed in the manu-
facture of chairs and cigars. The contract system is not adopted. The
superintendent purchases stock, causes it to be made u[), and, when
manufactured, disposes of the goods.
The discipline is very simple. Obedience, order, and cleanliness are
strictly enforced. There are no grades in the male department, and
none, unless it be a transfer to the house of shelter, in the female de-
partment. Itewards for good conduct are used only to a very limited;
extent, the privilege of over-work, or a chair, or some other little article
of cell-furniture, being about the only stimulus of this kind given to the
prisoners, ^'he prison dress is not in use, and flogging with the lash or
otherwise has been abolished.
The educational training which this institution gives to its inmates is;
one of its most distinguishing and excellent features.
The house of shelter, established in connection with the house of cor-
rection, to which i<Mnale prisoners from the latter are transferred for good
conduct, is a commodious and well-furnished home, i)rovided with all the
comforts and conveniences of a well-to-do family. Here is a (;ompany
of wayward girls taken from bad influences, forming a little society of
tlKMT own, and i)y industry, education, and refining a-ssoeiations, fitting
themselves for lives of respec-tability and usefulness. Ivach inmate is
[)rovide,(l witii :in oidinary-sized bedroom, fitted with the furniture
usually found in a room of this kind. Tiiey take, tiuMr nu'als together
at a table in tlie dining-hall, covered with a neat table cloth, and fur-
nished with (.'xeellent tabh; ware and nupkins. Most <>f the day is
devot(;d to work, mainly sewing and making linen coats and j)anta-
lortns. Singing, music on a |)arlor organ, evening school and reading,
with a weekly evening gathering for conversation and social entertain-
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF MICHIGAN. 415
ment, constitute the principal exercises. Caltar.e of tbis kind, amid
such surroundings, cannot fail to be productive of great good in pre-
paring those who receive it for useful home life, and we cannot but
regard the house of shelter as one of the best agencies for saving those
likely to fall that it has been our province to find.
The success of the Detroit house of correction seems to us not so much
due to the adoption of any particular system for the government of its in-
mates, unless it be the extraordinary elforts in the direction of education,
as to the zeal and efhciency of the superintendent. Mr. Brockway is, em-
phatically, the head of the institution, and every department of it is
pervaded with his enthusiasm and inspiration. He has shown himself
one of the most active, intelligent, and zealous of th,e prison meu of the
country, being among the foremost in the great work of prison reform,
and it is matter of deep regret that he is about to sever his connection
with the establishment.
The state prison is the principal penal institution of the State, and is
nearly as old as the State government, having been established in
1839, three years after the admission of Michigan into the Federal
Union. Located at the city of Jackson, in the central part of the State,
amid a net-work of railroads, it is convenient and easy of access. The
prison grounds embrace some thirt}^ acres of land within the corporate
limits of the city, and the prison walls, which have recently been recon-
structed in a good and substantial manner, inclose about ten and a half
acres.
The system of imprisonment is that known as the congregate or
Auburn. The prisoners work in association by day, under the rule of
silence, and at night are locked up in cells, some of which have been
carpeted and ornamented with pictures in a very tasty manner by the
convicts occupying them, thus showing that even behind prison bars
meu still appreciate and enjoy order and beauty.
The prisoners labor about an average of nine hours each week-day
daring the year, in workshops withiu the inclosure. The principal
business carried on is the manufacture of furniture, wagons, agricultural
implements, cigars, boots and shoes. The labor of the convicts is let to
contractors, who, at hxed periods, of which due notice is given, bid and
compete for it. The present rates paid for this labor range from 50 to
76 cents per day for each man.
Tasks are assigned to many of the meu, which they accomplish before
the close of working hoars. The remainder of the time they generally
spend in idleness.
In their last report the inspectors of the prison say : " The discipline
of the prison has been greatly modihed and improved within the past
year. Kind but decided and firm treatment has been employed as the
principal means of control, and we think with decided success. Infrac-
tions ot the rules have been less frequent, and there has been a gratify-
ing decrease of the necessity for severe punishment. Good order has
been maintained and punishment seldom required. No class of men
appreciate kindness and humane treatment more than convicts do. Shut
out trom the world, and deprived of the ordinary privileges of life, they
caretuUy note and remember every little kindness, and we believe are
more easily and better governed thereby than by the use of harsher
means. We have heard discharged convicts, about to go from the prison,
recount the little kindnesses that have been extended to them, and seen
them with tears of gratitude in their eyes thank the ofticers for the inter-
est they had manifested in their welfare. We have made it a point, as far
as possible, to ascertain what we could with respect to the conduct of
416 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
such as have gone o»t of the prison, and we are happy to be able to
state that the great majority have so conducted tbeniselves as to give
the assurance that they will in the future lead better lives. Only a
very few have returned to their former practices.'^
The ordinary and most frequent punishment is the bare cell and short
rations ; for more flagrant offenses an addition of tying the hands be-
hind the body and fastening them to the cell door. As a last resort/for
personal violence or a deliberate outrage, the lash is still held in reserve,
although the instances for its use are seldom found necessary. When-
ever convicts have, or conceive that they have, cause of complaint
against officers or any free men, they are always at liberty to bring
their complaint to the agent.
A system of rewards has been devised and partly put in effect, so that
now, at the end of each month, the convict who has conformed to the
rules of the jnisou receives a card, as evidence of good behavior. Offi-
cers say that it is astonishing to see how the men prize these cards,
treasuring them up, or sending them away to their families; and that
the effect of these little rewards is excellent in controlling the prisoners
and stimulating them to good conduct. Again, some of the old features
of prison life, tending to destroy the self-respect of the imprisoned, have
been removed, and the change seems to work well. Thus the rule re-
quiring the men to labor with their eyes constantly upon their work has
been modified, and there is no longer that downcast, "hang-dog" ex-
pression which formerly seemed to be peculiar to each convict.
There has also been greater infusion of educational agencies. A^n
hour on each Sabbath is now devoted to secular instruction, and num-
bers of convicts who came into the prison unable to read or write,
through the training of this school, have acquired these primary ele-
ments of education. Interesting lectures and readings are more fre-
quent than formerly, and many of the men, stimulated by the desire
thus created for good reading, have voluntarily given up the use of
tobacco for the privilege of becoming regular subscribers to some one
of our leading monthly magazines. Twice a week, after dinner, the
agent selects and reads for fifteen minutes to the prisoners in the diuiug-
hall some interesting and instructive piece.
The prison continues the practice which it some years ago inaugurated,
of giving special privileges to its prisoners on public holidays. The
custom is believed to be beneficial, making the convict more cheerful,
and impressing him with a conviction that an interest is still felt in his
welfare. An excellent dinner and short addresses constitute the order
of the day on these occasions. Of the efiect of the observance of these
holidays the agent says: "I am satisfied that in the manner we have
conducted them they have in no way imi>aired or relaxed the general
discipline, while, on the contrary, the jnesence of good men and women,
reading, talking, and singing, assures them they are not entirely cut oil
from all liuman sympathy. The whole tendency of tiu'se hospitalities is
to engender and enliven the kindlier feelings and s.vuipathies." For
several years the i)rison has been self-supporting, paying by its earnings
all its current expenses.
The public- mind of the State is beginning to manifest more interest
in th(» work Ibr which this congress has assembled. ]\Ten and women
within our bor<lers are helping to (?r<'ate an improved system of i)rison
discipline, wojthy of our- civilization. We have reason to antici])ate
favoiabU', legislation in iclation to many oC the topics suggested. And
it is an (»Hpecial cause ot congratulation that our efiicient governor is in
full arid hearty sympathy with us in the cause of prison reform, and in
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OP MINNESOTA. 41 T
tlie improved care demanded for all the wards of the State, and we
have strong faith that the good work will go on until these desirable
results are fully accomplished.
11. Minnesota.
By Professor WUVmm F. Phelps, President of the State yonna! Seliovl.
Minnesota was admitted into the Union in May, 1858. Hence, its in-
stitutions of every kind must be regarded as yet in their infancy. Xone
but those who have participated in the struggle can have any adequate
conception of the difliculties and embarrassments attending the efforts
to build up these institutions on just principles in frontier States, com-
posed of heterogeneous elements gathered from almost every quarter of
the globe. Of course it is expected that in new communities man's
earliest efforts must be put forth for the supply of his material wants,
and for his protection against the destructive tendencies of natural
forces. But he also soon finds himself compelled to guard against the
ravages of the rapacious and vindictive passions of his fellow-men.
Hence penal institutions are, unfortunately, among the prime necessities
of a State, while yet its resources are undeveloped and the views of its
people are as diverse as their origin and the circumstances under wJiich
their opinions have been formed. These conditions inevitably lead to
inadequate, conflicting, and unwise legislation, rendering it quite im-
possible to provide those comprehensive and far-sighted arrangements
so necessary to secure the reformation as well as the proper restraint of
the vicious and the criminal at a time when, above all others, such
measures would prove the most potent in tempering the spirit and
shaping the policy of the institutions, which are to be as enduring as the
State, and which are, indeed, to become a part of the State itself.
Populcitioti and commandinr/ position.
The population of Minnesota at the present time is 527,500, or more
than three times as great as in 18G0. It is situated on that central line
which is nearly equidistant from the two great oceans. The head of the
" unsalted sea," which is also the beginning of the chain of lakes reaching
through the Saint Lawrence to the Atlantic, and the source of the Father
of Waters, connecting it with the Mexican Gulf, are alike within its
boundaries. Through the Mississippi it stretches forth its hands
to the tropical, while through the Red River of the North and
its connections it reaches to the Arctic zone. The I^orthern Pacific
Railroad, opening up the shortest and easiest pathway " across the
continent," has its eastern terminus, with its numerous branches,
within the borders of the State, whose area is more than 83,000 square
miles, and whose ample domain is capable of sustaining a population
equal to that of half of the entire United States at the present time. The
Canadian Pacific Railway, whose construction will undoubtedly be com-
menced near our northern frontier, and be vigorously prosecuted during
the present year, will have its connections with the vast system already
spreading its iron net- work over our prairies, and thus making our ter-
ritory teem with the commercial life of two hemispheres. These faets
have a tendency to give to the State a prominence and an importance,
that are keenly appreciated by its leading minds, and by those who,
H. Ex. 185 37
418 NATIONAL PRISON KEFORM CONGRESS OF 137:5.
while struggling' to shape the policy of its institutions, are laying the
foundations of a future whose influence must be little short of illim-
itable.
Tlte insiltuiions of Minnesota.
The institutions at present existing, which bear upon crime and are
under the immediate care of the State, are: I. The educational, or pre-
ventive. II. The benevolent, or humane. III. The penal and reform-
atory.
I. The Educational In.stitutions consist: 1. Of the State University
at Saint Anthony, with 230 pupils, and maintained at a cost to the State
during- the past year of $21,000. ' 2. Of three State normal schools for
the special training of teachers, located respectively at AVinona, Man-
kato, and Saint Cloud, and giving- instruction during the year 1872 to
more than 500 embryo teachers. The current expenses of these semina-
ries defrayed by the State last year were 125,000. For the present year
they will amount to $30,000. The amount expended upon buildings
already erected and in progress is more than $200,000. 3. Of 3,000
common schools, scattered throughout all the organized townships, in-
cluding' numerous high schools in the cities, which have alreadj' at-
tained a standard of commanding excellence. The number instructed
in these schools during the past year was 120,352, at a cost of about
."§1,000,000 ; while the number totally uninstructed and left to recruit
the "/^ijoble army" of illiterates in the State, was 59,668. The productive
school fund now amounts to $2,780,559, being the fifth in magnitude in
this country, with six-sevenths of the "school-lands'' from which the
fund is derived are yet unsold. The increase in the number of common
schools last year was about 200.
These facts are brought forward here on account of the vital rela-
tions which exist between education and crime, betw^eeu the prevent-
ive and the i)eual institutions of a State — relations which, in all our
discussions of the latter, should be distinctly recognized. A trne educa-
tion is the surest preventive of crime, and no reformation can be effective
or permanent which does not address itself to the enduring soul of the
fallen being.
II. The Benevolent Jnstituiions. — These comprise the hospital for the
insane at Saint Peter, the institute for the d^eaf and dumb and the
blind at Faribault, and the soldiers' orphans' home at Winona. These
institutions arc all projected and supported on the most liberal scale,
and arc conducted according to the latest developments in the medical
and educational sciences.
III. The Peyial and Jie/ormatori/ Tnstittitioiis, iiQm\ivishi^: 1. The state
prison at Stillwater, on Lake Saint Croix. 2. The State reform school
for l)oth sexes, near Saint I'aul. 3. The jails established and supported
niidci- county supervision.
i. The state prison.
Location. — I'lie buildings for tliis institution are located at the mouth of
a short ravine, between two high and dee]) blnlfs fronting on the lake,
and running back to a ])oint of junction with the main ridge of whicli
1 lie blulfs are H]mrs. This ravine comprises about four a(;res of ground.
']"he foundations of the buildings icst ujjon jules driven into the marshy
soil bfiicatl). Tlie sum <»l' :'f 125,000 li:is been expended ujion the build-
PENAL INiSTITUTIONS OF MINNESOTA. 419
iug-s, and $40,000 more will be used dining- the couiing year in improve-
ments.
History. — This prison was established and located in 1858, the year
in which the State emerged from its territorial condition. There were
at that time but three "prominent points" in the State — Saint Paul,
Saint Anthony, and Stillwater. Saint Panl had the capital ; Saint
Anthony secured the university, and Stillwater the state prison. In
those early days the location of State institutions was controlled less
by public than by private considerations. The selectioji of the grounds
for the state prison was singularly unfortunate.
Buildings ami (jrounds. — There arc but two permanent buildings occu-
pied by the prison. They are located on opposite sides of the in-
closed space near the base of the bluffs forming the ravine. The main
prison building is on the left of the space inclosed, and is about 210
feet long by 40 in width. This contains the cells, (a portion of which ex-
tend to "the third story,) the domestic department of the institution, the
officers' quarters, and the family of the steward 5 the cells themselves
being in the rear. It is built of limestone, and is very substantial and
neat in appearance. The other building, which is on the right, and fur-
ther to the rear, is also of stone, and two stories high, with basement.
This contains the workshops, store-rooms, and engine and boiler rooms.
Tbere is a wall along the front of the premises, and the three other sides
are inclosed by a plank fence some 12 or 15 feet high, flanked by a walk
for the sentries, and surmounted by guard-houses for those oflicers when
on duty. A sewer, as yet quite inadequate to meet the necessities of the
prison, passes through the grounds and discharges into the lake in front.
The cells are ventilated by small tubes connecting with shafts passing
through the roof.
System of management. — The associate system of labor is employed.
The convicts work in groups in the several shops under the supervision
of an overseer or foreman, and a guard. In all other respects the cel-
lular system is adopted. The food is taken exclusively in the cells, and
the men are constantly confined, excepting during the hours allotted to
labor.
General administration. — The prison is under the general supervision
of a board of three inspectors appointed by the governor, by and with
the advice and consent of the senate, for three years, one member re-
tiring each year. The warden is appointed in the same manner. All
the subordinate officers are appointed by the warden, excepting the
chaplain and the physician, who are selected by the inspectors. As is
usual in such cases, political considerations influence more or less the
selection of these officers. It is but just, however, to say that, all the
officers of the institution have been chosen with excellent discrimina-
tion and good judgment.
System of labor. — The contract system of labor prevails in the
prison. The existing contract extends through a period of nine years,
the price being 45 cents per day for each man employed. Ten per cent.
of the convicts are reserved for the uses of the institution in its domes-
tic department. The branches of industry pursued are few and simple,
being limited i)rincipally to the production of wooden ware, barrels,
window-sashes, doors, and a small amount of cabinet and carpenter
work. The average duration of a day's work is ten and one-half hours
throughout the year, although in the winter season only eight and one-
half hours are occupied. In cases of over-work, which are, however,
rare, the convict is allowed to participate in his earnings.
Discipline. — Tiie discipline is firm yet mild and eminently humane.
420 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
As a general rule, talking is prohibited among the convicts, except in
cases where it is necessary in carrying forward the work. The officers
exercise a kind and i^aternal influence over the unfortunate men under
their charge. Cheerfulness prevails to a remarkable degree among the
convicts. They appear in this respect more like laborers working for
wages and enjoying the fruits of their toil than like men convicted of
crime and undergoing the deprivations of penal servitude. There seems
to be an entire absence of that feeling of sullen depression so character-
istic of convicts submitting to the rigors of an iron rule.
Funishmcnts. — Corporal inflictions are never resorted to. For the
graver offenses, confinement on bread and water until penitence is se-
cured is the principal reliance. The ball and chain, as a penalty for
attempts to escape, is imposed upon the more incorrigible. But all
those forms of punishment calculated to inflict bodily torture or create
a sense of indignity are entirely discountenanced and avoided.
Incentives to good conduct. — Under a law of the legislatur<»,, passed in
18G7, a convict may abridge the term of his sentence by exemplary con-
duct. By the terms of this act two days may be deducted for the first
month of good behavior, four days for the second, and six days for each
succeeding month, provided that the right to such deductions is not for-
feited by subsequent misconduct. Restoration to citizenship through
the pardoning power follows a continuous course of unexceptional
behavior.
Pardons. — The governor of the State has the authority to pardon a
criminal before the expiration of his term of sentence. This power is
sometimes exercised on the recommendation of the warden for good con-
duct, sometimes through petitions of influential citizens, pleading miti-
gating circumstances, and the like. The commanding general of the
department of Dakota has occasionally pardoned prisoners incarcerated
for military olfenses, and the President of the United States exercises
the same x^ower in behalf of ofienders against the laws of the General
Government.
Instruction. — No systematic instruction, either secular or religious, is
imi^arted to the prisoners as a whole, except during one hour on Sunday,
when services are held in the chapel of the institution. A small library
is provided for the men, and they use it freely, being encouraged to do
so by their thoughtful and humane officers, who manifest the warmest
interest in the welfare of their charge.
Sanitary condition. — Considering the location of the prison, its pecu-
liar surroundings, and the many inconveniences to which it is compelled
to submit, the liealth of the convicts is (juite remarkable. This is no
doubt accounted lor by the extreme care of their officers in preserving
the utmost cleanliness in every part of the buildings occupied. The
food is of the l)est quality, carefully (cooked, and regularly served, with
;in alHiiidance tor every man according to liis necessities. The variety
obscrvtMl in jnoviding the meals thi'ougli (he week is very Judicious and
well (;alculate<l to preserve a healthful tone in the digestive organs,
liatliing is required as a regular duty, and everything tluit conduces to
lu;alth is carefully regarded in thi5 adniinistration of the atVairs of the
prison. The Fourth of July, Thanksgiving day, and Christmas, are
'•legal holidays" in this institution. On tliese days the convicts aro
served with as good a dinner as any first (;lass hotel can provide. They
are allowe<l tlie fre<'<lom of thci i)rison. They visit each other in their
(•(•lis, converse, sing, and enjoy a wliolesome social reunion. Consider-
ing (he serious lack of material aids and of the ordinary conveniences
of bueli places, this prison is, in a generous sense, a model of wise.
REFORMATORY INSTITUTIONS OF MINNESOTA. . 421
humane, and efficient mauaj^ement. Time and a better appreciation of
the true ends of penal discipline will do much, it is to be hoped, to miti-
gate the evils arising from the unfortunate circumstances of its location
and earlier history.
The total cost of maintaining the prison, in 1872, was ^130,485 ; the
earnings from convict labor were $14,973 ; excess of expenditure over
earnings, $15,512 ; cost per prisoner, $1G8.81.
II. State Reform School. — This institution was established and opened
under State auspices, in January, 18G3. It occupies sixty-three acres
of ground about three miles from the business portion of Saint Paul,
on the main road to Minneapolis. It is about seven miles from the
latter city and is located on a commanding eminence overlooking a large
extent of country, in an eminently healthful situation.
The total cost of buildings to the present time has been 130,000 ; the
total number of boys committed to the institution, 180 ; the total num-
ber of girls, 15. The sexes are entirely separated from each other. The
annual current expenses are about $20,000.
As far as possible the " family x^lan " has been adopted in the man-
agement of the institution. " As only the main building has yet been
erected, this plan cannot be fully carried out in practice. The inmates
of the institution are brought under such intiuences as prevail in a well-
governed and well-regulated home, with good instruction and a firm
though kind and paternal discipline. The rewards and punishments
are of the natural Jdnd in use in all well-managed homes. The " lock-
up " has never been used ; all the professional appliances of prison dis-
cipline are scrupulously avoided.
The inmates are well fed, well clothed, well instructed, and well dis-
ciplined. They are allowed an abundance of play, and yet they are re-
quired to work systematically and to study attentively. In the words
of the very efficient superintendent. Rev. J. G. Eiheldaffer, " scliool-room
instruction is the first great tcorJc of the institittion. We do not hold these
children for the j)resent pecuniary advantage of the State, but for com-
liulsory education, and for a preparation for the work of life." These are
noble words, and they should form the key-note to the management of
every reformatory and penal institution.
A large garden of fruits and vegetables is cultivated, and many of the
boys are required to labor in it during the summer. A considerable
number are employed in the domestic department of the institution. In
addition to these employments, there is a tin-shop in which the boys in
squads of twelve are learning the tinner's trade ; a shoe-shop, with every
facility for learning that trade ; and a tailor's shop, in which they learn
to make and repair their own clothing.
To these educational, domestic, and industrial means are superadded
religious instruction in which our obligations to God and to our fellow-
men, and our accountability to God together with the noble rewards
which attend a life of virtue and the fearful jienalties of a life of vice
and crime, are held up as the incentives to a patient continuance in well-
doing.
Considering the youth of this institution and of the State which fosters
it, with the yet stinted means at its disposal, it is a decided success.
The boys who have been dischai^ed from it are for the most part con-
ducting themselves in such a manner as fully to vindicate the wisdom
of the means employed to save them from a life of crime, and make
them honest, upright, worthy citizens.
III. County jails. — With very few exceptions these institutions in
this State are of the most primitive sort and scarcely fit for the accom-
422 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
modatiou of the beasts of the field. This is an apparently inevitable
consequence of the peculiar state of things existing in a new country,
with a yet meager population, ami with resources only partially de-
veloped.
In several of the larger cities — SaiutPaul, Stillwater, Winona, Hastings,
and Eochester — very creditable buildings have been erected for the uses
of the jails in their respective counties. In many cases, however, the
jail is but a meager appendage to a splendid court-house, a single room
being supplied with cells for the confinement of persons accused of
crime and awaiting trial.
At Winona, however, a large and commodious building has been
erected for the exclusive occupancy of the county jail, the sheriif, and his
under-ofiicers. This building is of stone, is finely located, and is really
a model of its kind. The cell-block is two stories in height, and the
cells are entirely of wrought iron placed back to back in the center of
the prison, and are surrounded by a spacious and airy corridor, paved
with heavy boiler-iron. It is kept scrupulously neat in all respects,,
while escape from it seems a physical impossibility.
12. Mississippi.
By General B. B. Egglestoii, president of the hoard of inspectors of the stale prison.
The management of the state prison has, under the provisions of an
act passed by the legislature entitled " An act for the regulation, con-
trol and support of the penitentiary," approved March 28, 1872, under-
gone a marked change for the better in almost every respect, and
notably has this been the case in the treatment of the convicts. Hith-
erto these unfortunate outcasts have not received that care and atten-
tion for which humanitarians in this countrj' and in Europe (whose efforts
are now happily about to be crowned with success) have so long and
l^ersistently labored. Up to the 3d day of last May, when the present
superintendent, Mr. C. AV. Loomis, took charge of the prison, unneces-
sarily cruel iiunishments, which might justly be termed the relics of a
barbarous age, still prevailed. Dut the people of our State have not
been unmoved spectators of the universal movement in the direction
of inison reform, and the public sentiment Y.'as significantly expressed
by the legislature in the act above rcferi-ed to, whereby corporal and
every otlier species of punishment, not tending to enforce the rules and
regulations necessary to prison government, were abolished. And this
is better shown by reference to the thirteenth section of the act, which
reads as follows:
That licro.aftcr ilic, Iimd ol" no r.Miiiilc convict shull he .shorn, iuul no )iiuii.sliiueiit by
hlowH or ulripv.H sliiill ))c iiilli(;t('<l, under any circuni.stanccs whatever, npon convicts ot
(litLcr Hcx ; hnt it shall ))e the duty of the inspector to prescribe such ])iiniKhnicnt, in
the form of solifary confiiioirient in a dark cell, or snch other mode as they may deem
fit and exiiedient ; and it shall be the duty of Ihe snpc rintendent to keej) a merit and
•leuicrit roll of the condnct of the convicts, and he shall, from time to tinu;, rej)ort the
mime to tho governor, who shall shorten the term of service of any convict at the rate
of tliret! (hiy.s for each month of said (ei-m, whenever said merit-roll shall indicate that
said convict lias lioen fjnilly of no \iolation of tli*) rnles of the penitentiary.
Under tho above and other ])rovisions of law, and in the exercise of a>
wise discretion, the superintendent has succeeded in translbrming the
convicts, who came under his super\isi()n morose and discontented, into-
a remarkably onlerly class of men.
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF MISSISSIPPI. . 423
They seem now to feel something of that self-respect which is so in-
valuable in law-abiding communities. Every encouragement consistent
with prison regulations is aftbrded to develop the best qualities of
their nature, and to cultivate in them moral principles which will here-
after tend to make them better and more useful citizens.
The superintendent has, as far as possible, caused them to feel that
they are governing themselves, rather than being slavishly governed,
and the result is apparent in the remarkable fact that, out of over four
hundred convicts, he has found it necessary, under the present regula-
tions, to ininish only two.
Keligious instruction is regularly administered to them, and they
attend divine worship in their chapel every Sabbath with apparent will-
ingness, and some show of devotion ; they also attend a well-managed
Sabbath-school, established for them within the prison ; they have the
advantage of literary recreation in the use of a library, maintained by a
fee of 25 cents for admission of visitors to the institution ; and once a
year, on Christmas day, they are allowed the use of the prison hall, and
free communication with one another.
The superintendent has also shown a very commendable zeal in
another important direction, viz, in the distribution and apportion-
ment of labor. Making himself thoroughly acquainted with the habits
and dispositions of the convicts, he assigned to them that kind of labor
to which, from their mental and physical capacities, they were best
adapted ; and in no case has an undue amount of labor been given to
a man as a punishment, the superintendent humanely claiming the ob-
ject of a criminal's incarceration to be a reformation of his character
rather than a vindictive punishment of his crime.
By these means he has acquired an influence over the heads and hearts
of these unfortunates, which has enabled him in his first annual report
to the board of inspectors to exhibit a greater amount and better
quality of work in every department of labor than has marked the close
of any previous year. He has encouraged among them a spirit of emu-
lation, and the result has been most satisfactory. To use his own
words, " The most contented and cheerful prisoners we have are those
who evince the greatest interest in their work, and endeavor to com-
plete what they have to do in the most expeditious and Avorkmaulike
manner."
The above remarks apply only to prisoners within the walls of the
penitentiary, and who are, consequently, under the immediate personal
supervision of the superintendent. There is another class of prisoners
referred to in his report as " prisoners working on railroads." Owing
to want of accommodation for all the prisoners in the present building,
it has been, for the past few years, found necessary, under the authority
of law, to lease the labor of the surplus convicts without the prison
walls.
They have been employed on i)lantations and in the construction of
railroads. For their protection, the most jealous restrictions have been
placed upon the lessees ; nevertheless, the position of this particular
class has been a source of much public uneasiness. The legislature,
during its last session, though it inaugurated many wholesome reforms
and abolished many objectionable features in the prison management,
did not feel that it could make any changes for the better in this direc-
tion, except prospectively. It made provision for the purchase of a
site for, and the construction. of, a new building, which will, when com-
pleted, atibrd ample accommodation for all our convicts within its walls.
Tlie board of inspectors show a keen appreciation of this unsatisfactory
424 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
mode of cmi>loyiug- convicts' labor, as will be seen b^' reference to tbeir
first annual report to the governor. The superintendent himself, in his
report to the inspectors, in which he describes at length the condition of
this class of convicts and their removal from the ameliorating influences
which he is enabled to throw around those Mithin the walls, thus gives
expression to his very- great anxiety on this subject :
But I submit tliat it is prejudicial to tlie best interests of the prisoners ; and that the.
very iuteut of the law itself is defeated wheu they are thus employed. The object iu
sending a prisoner to the penitentiary is, first, to prevent crime; and, secondly, the
reformation of the criminal. It is the imperative duty of those having prisoners in
charge to labor to cftect this reformation ; and it is a matter of impossibility to enforce
the same discipline outside the i)risou walls which is enforced within.
Z:^o doubt these earnest appeals in behalf of this class of convicts will
have their legitimate effect in inducing the legislature to hasten the
work of completing the new prison building. It is believed that the
legislature will, at the same time, testify its appreciation of the results
of partial improvement by the adoption, at tlie earliest possible moment,
of a thorough and complete system of prison reform.
13. Missouri.
[Xo formal report was received from this State, but the two delegates,
Mr. Miller and General Miner, commissioned by the governor to repre-
sent Missouri in the Congress of Baltimore, learning this fact, handed iu
the following memorandum :]
Having heard from the corresponding secretary of the National Pris@n
Association that he had received no report on the penal institutions of
Missouri, we, who are delegates from that State to this congress, beg
leave to submit the following on the present condition of such institu-
tions, with the regret that it must, of necessity, be so meager and in-
complete.
Missouri has only one penitentiary, which is located at Jefferson City.
It now contains some nine hundred convicts, of whom about twenty-five
are women. The inspectors are State officers, consisting of the auditor,
treasurer, and attorney-general, who hold their position cx-officio.
Under the earnest recommendations of the governor and the board
of guardians, we are confident that our penitentiary will be placed, by
the legislature now in session, on a higher ground of reform to the con-
vict and of usefulness to the State. This institution has been made,
since its erection in 1830, the theater of experiments of almost ever^'
modern system of management. The State itself has undertaken the
jnanagement of its labor as well as its discipline. It has been leased
out ior a tcrnv of years to a com])any, Avith full control given to them
over the ])iisoners. At present the labor of tlie men is hired to various
individuals aiul for varied industrial ])ursuits. Under all these modes
of managcMicnt, the institution has been a source of heavy expense to
tlu^ State ; it has ncvin' been self-sustaining.
Tlie system of management is the congregate, and CNcry privilege is
allowed to th<5 inmalcs consistent with the ])ul)lic safety. The principle
of kiiidncsH, as fai' as jiossihlc, is tlu^ pi'cscnt rule of action-. The lash
is abolislH'd and the sliiped garments will be oidy retaincMl, it is hoped,
until sonic cxleiior walls now in i)rocess of construction shall be IJnished.
Tlie laboi' of Mm'. convicts is hired at JO cents a <lay.
I'lic <Mliication of the coiivi(;ts is at present utterly neglected. Yet we
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF NEBRASKA. 425
anticipate, among the coining improvements, a system of instruction
that Avill provide for a teacher-iu-chief, with the power of taking from
the convicts a suitable number of competent assistants ; and that ample
time will be given to impart to all illiterate convicts a fair common-
school education.
From the experiments made, we are convinced that, for the class of
convicts now in the Missouri penitentiary, the congregate system is by
far the best. We cannot commend the adoption of any plan of man-
agement that, by a coercive s^'stem of silence and unceasing labor, for
hours, on one branch of industry, in one position, and with downcast
eye, tends to crush out the manhood of the convict, and which, by forc-
ing his thoughts continually in the direction of his own sufferings, is
calculated to breed feelings of revenge toward the State, and of hatred
toward his keepers. Our observation and experience confirm us in the
belief that the social nature of the j)risoner should be exercised and
developed under proper guidance, and that, so far from any evil result-
ing, this plan may be made a powerful element of individual reforma-
tion.
The system of countj' jails in our State is one that requires many
changes. We except the new jail of Saint Louis, which, in all the ele-
ments of a good prison, has scarcely its superior in the United States.
The city of Saint Louis has a house of refuge and a work-house ; but
the State itself has no reformatory institutions, no industrial schools, no
houses of industry and correction. We earnestly hope and believe that
the question of organizing these esssential agencies in a system for the
prevention and repression of crime will receive the early attention and
favorable action of the legislature.
14. Nebeaska,
By Rcr. J. Ji'. Snowdin, Mi'ttiioiiari/ A. S. S. Union, and acHng chaplain of ihc State pcni^
teniiary.
The great aim here is to educate the head and heart, reform and
elevate, making the prisoners feel that they can regain what they have
lost,and be prepared,socially,morally,andreligiously, to assume citizen-
ship, and enter anew upon the honorable duties of free life.
The discipline, though firm, has been tempered with much mildness.
The Bible has been publicly opened and studied, the Avord of God is
preached every^Sabbath. From the prison vaults songs of Zion ascend
daily. Three nights in the week a common school is conducted with
marked success, in which Indians, Africans, and whites are taught to •
read and write. Instructive lectures are, from time to time, delivered
to the prisoners. A literary society has been formed and meets weekly.
The convicts are also supplied with books, and with religious and
literary papers. Of forty-eight prisoners discharged within the past
eighteen months, only one was unable to read and write. Several have
given unmistakable evidence that they have passed from death unto
life, and their reformation is complete.
Mr. Henry C. Campbell, the present warden, is a humane and efficient
oflBcer. May God more abundantly bless the great work of reclaiming
and reforming the fallen and guiltv.
426 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
].j. New Hampshire.
By Kir. Win. Clark, D. D., forinerJij tliainnaii of the joint leyialaticc committee on prisona.
Xew Hampshire coutains a population of Sl.jjGOO souls ; an area ot
9,280 square miles. Its inhabitants are mainly Americans by birth, and
descendants of the Puritans. In late years the enlargement of manu-
facturing-enterprises, and. the development of our extensive water-i^ower
have brought in a considerable foreign element. In general education,
morals, good order, obedience to law, and industry, the State will compare
favorably with any of her sister States.
Our penal institutions are the state prison at Concord, and our ten
county jails, one in each county.
Eefraetory prisoners are generally subdued and brought to obedience
by kind, yet firm, moral treatment ; where this fails, confinement in dark
cells, with diminution of food, is generally effective. Prison inmates are
men, nothwithstanding their violation of law and incarceration ; self-
respect they have still, to which, if appeal be generously made, their
dormant manhood will reappear, and they often show themselves pos-
sessed of noble qualities. This is the kind of discipline which, in the
main, characterizes the government of the New Hampshire state
prison, and which, its ofl&cers testify, renders its management compara-
tively eas}'. The commutation law, which enables prisoners by good
conduct to shorten their terms of imprisonment, has proved an eiiective
agent of discipline and reformation.
One of the results of our system of universal education in Xew Hamp-
shire is, that but a comparatively small number of the inmates of our
state prison are unable, on committal, to read and write. Of the eighty
prisoners confined April 30, 1872, seventy-two could read and write; six
could read, but not write; two only could neither read nor write. The
chaplain maintains a school for such notwithstanding the smallness of
the number.
There is a good library belonging to the prison containing about fifteen
hundred volumes, mostly valuable books, wiiich are much read by the
prisoners. The legislature appropriates 8100 per annum to keep up and
increase the library.
The prison enjoys the constant labors of a faithful and experienced
chaplain. At 9 a. m. on the Sabbath he preaches in the chapel of the
prison building, when all the male prisoners are required to be present.
At 10 he holds religious services with the female convicts, which arc
followed by a service in the hospital. At 1.30 p. m. a Sabbath-school
is held in the fcnnUe department. At 3.45 a similar service is con-
ducted in the male division by prison ofllcers, assisted by Christian
•gentlemen of different religious denominations, who volunteer their ser-
vices for this work. The remainder of the Sabbath the chaplain devotes
to private conversation with the ]>risoners in their cells. Attendance
on the Sabbath -scliool is not compulsory; but more than half the
j)ri.sonerH attend voluntarily. A convi(;ts' prayer-meeting is held every
Wednesday evening, which is well attended by the prisoners, who take
jjart in t\\v, exercises of jjrayer and singing, with i)r<)priety of demeanor,
and witii much apparent, and it may Ixi hoped sincere, devotion. At
any late, its inllncncc, ujjon the- tone of the conduct of the prisoners
is indubitably and decidedly good.
The only industry carried on at ]»resi'nt is that of the nmnufaeture of
eabinel-ware. ^flie labor is let to a contractor at 95 cents a day per
man. The annual profit exceeds the exiXMises. Tln^ e,xp(Miditures for
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 427
the year euding April 30, 1872, were $14,429.85; the earning's $19,930.88 j
a net gain to the State of $5,501.03.
The system is that of congregate, as distinguished from celhilar,
imprisonment.
Perfect silence is maintained among the prisoners while at work, and,
indeed, at all other times ; nor are they permitted to communicate by
signs more than by words.
The prison is well ventilated and kept clean and wholesome. The
cells and halls are swept daily, and often throughly washed. The
clothing and bedding- are comfortable. The food is ample, varied, well
prepared, palatable, and nourishing, as the generally hale appearance of
the prisoners clearly shows. The i^hysician daily visits the prison,
taking a kindly care of the sick and of chronic invalids. Mortality
among prisoners is probably greater than among the same number of
law-abiding i)ersons, for the reason that many convicts enter jirison
with constitutions impaired by vice and crime. The deaths among the
1,522 inmates of the prison during the sixty years of its existence have
been 102, or at the rate of 1^- per year on the average.
On the whole, the government and management of our state iirisou,
in its several departments, will compare, I think, favorably with most
institutions of the kind in our country. The i^rison building might be
improved ; the dormitories are too small ; and other architectural
deficiencies are patent. But considering that the prison was erected
two generations back, its arrangements and conveniences are quite
tolerable. Its government is firm, but humane. The physical and
moral welfare of its unfortunate inmates is kindly regarded and, to a
good degree, promoted. The institution is creditable to the character
of the State.
Our countj' jails are very far from being models. The jail system
stands in need of radical reforms.
The reform school, established by the State some fifteen years ago,
near the city of Manchester, was designed as a home and school for
idle, vagrant, and vicious children. There was found to be a rapidly
increasing number of children of both sexes in our manufacturing
towns, especially the children of foreigners, who were growing up in idle-
ness, immorality, vice, and crime, and who, unless checked and reformed,
would become dangerous members of the community, and soon be can-
didates for the state prison. To save the children and train them to
honest industry, the reform school was established, and it has, in some
good degree, accomplished the hoped-for objects.
The inmates of the school make good, many of them rapid, improve-
ment in the ordinary branches of common education ; but their moral
improvement is not so encouraging. This should not be cause of sur-
prise, as most of them had previously lived under evil influences and
formed vicious habits. Still, the larger part leave the school improved
in character and become useful members of society.
A farm is connected with the school, on which all the bo^'S work,
more or less. In the winter they are employed to some extent in
caning chair-seats. The girls are taught sewing, house-work. &c. The
managers feel that there should be introduced into the establishment
some of the usual trades, believing that such a measure would be for
the best good of the inmates,
A great desideratum in the reform school is a chaplain, who would
devote himself wholly to the moral and religious instruction and train-
ing of the scholars.
A societv to aid discharged convicts was formed a few vears since in
428 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF I87;«.
the State, but as yet is suiall iu membership and means, and has not
acquired a large influence, or accomplished very important results.
IG. Xew Jersey.
By John F. Hageman, Esq.
The State of New Jersey is giving increased attentiou to the science
of penal law and prison reform. It has made more advance within the
last ten years than in the preceding half century. It is, however, only
a follower and not a leader in this noble cause, which is attracting the
attention of civilized nations as the most inviting field of Christian phi-
lanthropy— the most important branch of social science. It is not that
the people of New Jersey are less philanthropic and humane than their
fellow-citizens of other States that they have given such a tardy support
to this great movement ; nor is it that they occupy a lower grade than
others in education, religion, and public wealth.
The State claims now to be ranked amoug the foremost States of the
Union in its system of public schools. In addition to this and its pros-
perous normal school, it is distinguished for its several colleges and sem-
inaries, literary, scientific, and theological, of world-wide fame and influ-
ence, and for its large number of Christian churches and charitable
institutions, all creating an enlightened and Christian public sentiment
throughout the State. And no State is in a better financial condition
and better able to respond to the calls of reform measures than New
Jersey.
If our people have been apathetic, and have lagged behind in this re-
form movement, it may have been due, in some measure, to their strong
confidence in the unsullied character of the judiciary of the State, to
Avhich they have intrusted the enforcement of its penal laws for the re-
pression of crimo. With no corrupt connivance between the courts and
criminals, they have been assured that the machinery of their legal tri-
bunals are in the hands of pure, honest, and learned oflicials. It may
be that with such confidence in the bench and bar of the State, for the
due j)unishment of crime, they may have become too indifltereut to that
feature of punishment which relates to the reformation of the convict,
as well as toward juvenile reformatories for the prevention of crime.
But the iihilanthropic heart and conscience of New Jersey have been
touched by the appeals and labors of prison-discipline associations of
other States, and it is hoped that henceforth vigorous and co-operative
efibrts will 1)C made to win the prisoner back to virtue, which is not a
hopeless work. The late Dr. JJenjamin Rush of Philadelphia, before the
Society for J'romoting I'olitical Inquiries, convened at the house of Ben-
jamin Franklin, in 1787, iu speaking of the eifects of public punishment,
said : " I liavc no more doubt of every crime having its cure in moral and
physical iiillucnce than I have of the etUcacy of the Peruvian bark in
curing the intdiiiittcint i'eviiY. The only ditficulty is to find out the
proper remedy or nuncdies lor ])articular vices."
The public institutions of the State which arc strictly ])enal are; 1.
The state i)rison ; L'. The county jail. And those which :ire chiefly reform-
atory and i)reventive, arc : .'J. TJui State Jvel'orm School for Juvenile Of-
fen<lers; 1. 1'Iie State Industrial S(;hool for (Jirls.
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF NEW JERSEY. 429
1. — The state py (SOU.
This is situated near the Delaware, in South Trenton. It was built in
1836, in place of the old Lamberton prison. It was designed to carry
out the solitary system, which was then approved, but which has been
since abandoned as injurious to health and mind, expensive and ill-
adapted to the reformation of the prisoners. The building has been
enlarged from time to time by additional wings, one of which, known as
the east wing, has just been completed, with 170 cells, constructed and
finished upon modern, reformatory principles, as to light, ventilation,
cleanliness, and security. The wiiole number of cells in the prison is
522 ; all are lighted with gas at night, as are also the public rooms and
halls. The whole building is warmed by steam, and under its present
careful management it is not subject to the charge of being utterly unfit
for a prison, but it really contains all the elements of a suitable building
for such purpose. The average number of prisoners during the past
year was 527.
General administration. — By recent legislation the government of the
prison has been improved. In 1809 the prison act was revised and
amended, and the office of supervisor was created, the ap])oiutmeut to
be made by the governor, chancellor, chief justice, and attorney-general
of the State, for the term of three years, with a salary of $4,000 a year.
This officer, and the comptroller and treasurer of the State, constitute
a board of supervisors. The keeper and the five inspectors are chosen
annually by the legislature ; the constitution requires this ; the keeper
receives a salary of $4,000, and appoints his deputies. The judges of
the supreme court and court of errors, and the members of the legisla-
ture, constitute a board of visitors. The annual election of the keeper
and inspectors by the legislature destroys the stability of the prison
administration. Politics will, in this way, interfere with the appoint-
ment, and frequent and uncertain changes in the offices of keeper and
inspectors are hurtful to the good management of the institution. There
is no central power supervising and directing the entire penal system of
the State. Such a power, having charge of all the penal and reforma-
tory institutions of the Commonwealth, with a new classification of
crimes and the establishment of intermediate prisons, would be of great
utility.
Prison industries. — The present law requires every convict to be kept
at hard labor every day except Sundays, if able to work. The original
plan of private labor in cells has been superseded by ample workshops,
erected in connection with the prison, where the prisoners work to-
gether in silence, and take their meals at a common table, also in silence,
having teachers and overseers in their work. Their labor is done by
contract, which is not favorable to the labors of the moral instructor.
But the system works well financially thus far. The convicts are happier
and more obedient, under such a system of labor, than the former one, and
their earnings amount to more than enough to maintain them in prison.
The State has received this year about $28,000 from the surplus of their
earnings after taking out the cost of their maintenance. Their earnings
the past year amounted to $80,892.99, and their expenses were $52,414.52,
exclusive of the salaries of officers. It may soon become wholly self-
sustaining.
Discipline. — The treatment of prisoners has become kind and humane.
No corporeal i)unishment is allowed by law. The use of the parti-col-
ored dress is retained to prevent tiie e^scape of prisoners from the work-
shops, which are not yet as secure as they should be. The order among"^
430 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1S73.
the piisouers is improved by tlie system of work and the reformatory
eftbrts bearing upon them. Kind treatment is not lost upon them.
Religious and secular instruction. — This is an important department of
duty. As far back as 1827, in the old Lamberton prison, the students
of the Princeton Theological Seminary, under the inspiration of the
Boston Prison Discipline Society, visited that prison every Sunday to
teach the Bible and to preach to the prisoners, and the legislature
favored it and directed rooms to be provided in the prison for that pur-
pose. The law has, for a great many years, authorized a supply of the
Bible and other books to the prisoners, and also a suitable person to
give them religious instruction. The moral instructor is now appointed
by the governor and supervisors, with a salary of $1,000 a year, and he
is required to devote all his time to his otJtice. He preaches every Sab-
bath in each of the four halls of the prison and recites the Moral Law,
the Apostolic Creed, and the Lord's Prayer. The Bible and religious
papers and books are distributed among the convicts, and are gladly
received and read by many of them.
The moral instructor and the other officers of the prison concur in an
appeal for a chapel for religious services on Sundays. At present the
prisoners are in their cells unseen, while rhe preaching is done in the hall
in their hearing. It is urged, we think with good reason, that the prison-
ers should all be allowed to meet together, in a chapel where they could
see the preacher, and he see them, eye to eye ; where they could sing
together, and feel all the glow which social public worship excites. What
a congregation five hundred prisoners would make ! How an earnest and
eloquent minister would be quickened by such an inspiring company of
hearers! What marvelous conversions might be expected among such
a class of men, many of whom have broken and sorrowful hearts ! Such
preaching is the divinely-prescribed means of reforming and regener-
ating men, and no men are more in need of such means than prisoners,
for whom the gospel was designed and sent.
The legislature has appropriated $10,000 for the erection of a chapel,
and it may be hoped that this great desideratum will soon be supplied.
There ought to be a person employed as a secular teacher, especially
for those prisoners who cannot read and write. At j^resent there is no
provision for secular instruction in the prison. This we hope will soon
be provided. The hours of labor need not be encroached upon, for this
instruction could be given in the evening.
The library. — The prison library now numbers L*,r)00 volumes, which
are read with interest by the prisoners. It exerts a good influence in
tiie prison.
Commutation and rewards. — The principle of remitting a part of the
term of the sentence for good conduct, so universally commended by ex-
l)erienced i)rison keej^ers, has been adopted in a small degree in New
Jersey. Tlie moral instructor, supervisor, and keeper, all testify to its
Iiai)py inlluence on the order and good behavior of the prisoners. The
number of those who received a remission during the last year was 215.
The giving rewards^ by allowing the i)risoner to retain a portion of
his earnings for liia own use when discharged, or for the use of his
family, has not yet been adopted in this ])rison. The legislature will
probably authorize it when tliey next amend the jirison law.
I'ardons. — This power could not Ix^ lodged in safer haiuls than in the
court of jiardons, which is comjiosed of the goveiiior, chancellor, and
the six lay Jn<lg('s of the conrt of errors, or a majority of them. The
number pardoned last year was <>.']. It is usual to extend a pardon to a
certain class of prisoners, a little 1)efon' their term expires, so as to save
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF NKW JERSEY. ii)l
their citizensbip, since a pardon oi>erates as a rehabilitation ot the pris-
oner in his civil rights.
Discharfied prisoners. — We have iio adequate provision by law for
aiding prisoners upon their discharge. The statute allows $5 to be
paid to each couvict when discharged ; and the lack of State aid is not
supplied by voluntary charitable associations. The same motives which
would prompt efforts to reform convicts in prison ought to prompt
efforts to save them when they go out from relapsing into a criminal
life. This subject is receiving special attention, which will result prob-
ably' in the organization of an aid association, and of additional legisla-
tion, perhaps a State commission to take charge of the matter.
Reformation of prisoners. — The principle which underlies all these
prison-reform measures rests upon the conviction that punishment,
whose chief end is to prevent crime, is effected not merely by depriving
the offender of the power to repeat his offense, nor by intimidating
others from the commission of a like offense, but by reforming the char-
acter of the prisoner (where he has not forfeited his life) and restoring
him to society a better man. Superadded to these ideas of punishment
is that one of preventing crime by training wayward and neglected
children from the paths of vice into those of virtue. Hence our reform
schools. !New Jersey is making progress in this direction. It is not
possible to determine how many prisoners have been reformed, nor to
what extent they have been "benelited by the efforts made for that
purpose, for we have only just begun to make our prison a place where
human beings might be improved in character. But we. have certain
knowledge that much good has been accomplished, and we have faith
that in the future much more efficiency will attend the reformatory
efforts. The number of recidivists must grow less and less.
II. — Count 1/ jails.
There are twenty-one counties in the State, and a jail in every county,
and in a few instances a workhouse connected with the jail. These
county prisons are for punishment as well as for detention. As a gen-
eral thing, they are insecure, filthy, unhealthy, and utterly destitute of
reformatory power. There is no system of discipline by which they are
governed. The care of them is rather incidentally committed to the
sheriff; but he is under the direction of the chosen freeholders, who
are elected more with reference to the building of bridges, &c., than to
their qualifications to discipline prisoners and regulate prisons. In
structure and government, with perhaps one or two exceptions, they are
all a miserable failure. The number of ccMivicts confined in them is too
small to justify the expenditure of money necessary to maintain reform-
atory provisions.
Within a few years past, a sentiment in favor of attaching a work-
house to the jails has resulted in the experiment in three or four counties,
but such a policy is not fully vindicated by the trial, especially in the
rural counties. The number of prisoners is too few and tluctuating to
warrant the outlay involved in conducting a system of prison labor.
The character of our jails is such that our courts feel constrained to
send too many convicts, guilty of trivial misdemeanors only, to the
state prison. There is really no classification of prisoners in the prison
system of the State. The jail prison laws need thorough revision. A
(;ounty jail should be fitted and used only for the detention of persona
awaiting trial. If several counties could unite in sustaining a penal
prison, to be mnde reformatory by work and other proper appliances to
432 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
that end, it would be an imin-ovement upon the present plan ; or if a syS'
tern of intermediate prisons by the State could be adopted, these penal
jails might be dispensed with. We are glad to believe that the present
system cannot much longer withstand public opinion.
III. — The State Beform School for juvenile offenders.
In 1850 an act establishing a bouse of refuge was passed, and a
building was commenced on a beautiful site at Kingston, but through
tlie freaks of party politics the act was repealed and the work aban-
doned, the State treasury paying for tlie loss and damage. Fifteen
years were lost to the cause of this reform. But the blunder has been
corrected by the act of 1805, which established the State reform
school for juvenile offenders. This institution has been organized on a
farm of 190 acres near Jamesburgh, in ]Middlesex County, a central and
eligible situation. Suitable buildings have been erected, to carry out
the plan of an open farm system, for the reformation of boys between
eight and sixteen years of age, Avho shall have committed some crime
other than murder or manslaughter, or shall be habitually disorderly,
vagrant, or incorrigible, or otherwise fit subjects for such an institution.
Its object is to prevent rather than to inmish crime. The boys are
taught to work on the farm, and are instructed in secular and religious
learning. The number of boys now in the institution is about 110. All
the appliances for reformation are employed in this school. It is well
governed. The board of control consists of the governor, chancellor,
and chief justice of the State, by whom six trustees are appointed, and
they exercise a supervision. The apx)roval of a justice of the supreme
court is required in every case of committing a boy to the school. It
is not a prison governed by physical force, but " the Christian idea of a
well-regulated family, with the steady pressure of kind, moral, and
social influence governing all its discipline." The family system, in con-
tradistinction to the congregate, is the one here employed. The boys
show their appreciation of it by not running away, even when unre-
strained. A new family building has just been erected near the main
building. There have been 300 boys in the institution since 1867.
It is a success, and a great preventive of crime in the State. It is
v.ell managed and liberally supported by the State.
^\. — The State Industrial School for (jirls.
I'his school has been in operation for a year. It is held in a. rented
house at I'iiie drove, on the Delaware, a little below Trenton. The site
arid a}»])ropriate buihliiigs, though authorized by the legislature, have
not yet been procured. Tliere are seventeen young girls in the school^
who are em])loyed in making their own clothing, and in helping to make
clothes for the boys' reform school. The same provisions which con-
trol the admission of boys in the reform s(;hool, and the same sui)crvis-
ion and control which the goverm)r and other officers exercise in gov-
erning the reform school, are applied in this institution for girls. Th©
justices of the siii)reme court in tlieir circular say :
'V\\f\ iiiHfitiil ion in not ii lioino for Tiicrcly dostitnto or orphan oliildrcn, bnt in th«
ofJ'njirin;; of :i i^rowing conviction tliat, yoiui;^ f'cniulcH wlio have violated the law
«Iioiii'l liavo HOMic, other rcfn^^c a-ssi^^ncd thcin than our vilo coirimon jailH, v/h«ro thora
uro not only !io harriers to constant contact with every class of criminals, but an entirw
Siltsfiice of all aii)tlianc<'H of a reformatory characttsr.
Then* are six lady uianagerM ai>i)ointed, besides the trus-teen, to super-
vise and uiauagc the institution.
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF NEW YORK. 433
V. — Private preventive institutionfi.
There are private orphan asylum.s, cliilclren\s homes, &c., in the State,
which are not state institntions, but are sustained by churches, or pri-
vate charity, some incorporated and some not, which are germane to
those i)reventive schools of the State above mentioned, in training des-
titute and neglected children. But wo deem it unnecessary to incntn-
ber our pai)er Avith further details.
General conclusions.
1. The penal laws need revising. The number of wain proJiibita offenses
have been so multiplied that many persons are indicted, convicted, and
sent to the state prisons, where they fare precisely as the manslayer and
highway robber do, for offenses which are trivial, hardly to be called
criminal. There are too many men sent to the state prison.
2. There should be intermediate prison houses of correction for those
who are convicted only of misdemeanors, and for those who have been
in a measure reformed in the state prison, to whom more privileges can
be safely accorded of a reformatory character than a state prison can
allow. This would, at the same time, greatly relieve the state prison.
3. A classification of crimes, punishments, and prisons should be made
by law, and the whole system of jails and prisons in the State should be
administered by some central unit power, withdrawing from county
jails their penal character, and making them only places of detention,
with their structure and government thoroughly changed.
4. Larger rewards should be given to prisoners from their earnings, for
good behavior ; and more aid should be rendered to the discharged
convict either by the State, or, what is better, perhaps, by associated
private" charity, with state aid.
Toward this high standard New Jersey is gradually progressing.
17. J^EW York.
lUj Elisha Harris, M. D., corresponding secretary of the Prison Jssooiation of New YorJc.
The penal and reformatory institutions of the State of New York are
reporte<l upon by the author of this paper from the standpoint of recent
searchiitg personal examination and nearly two years of study and ofScia!
intercourse with them. If the view presented in the report is not flatter-
ing to our State pride, the facts are certainly adapted to awaken inquiry
and incite to the eftbrts needed for the improvement of these institu-
tions and the increased efficiency of the penal and reformatory work to
be done by them.
The State of New York has a much greater burden of criminal popu-
lation than the well-ordered and law-abidingclassesof society are aware
of. We have three state prisons; six local prisons, under county ad-
ministration, named penitentiaries; sixty-seven county jails in our sixty
counties ; and something more than one hundred police stations, or lock-
ups, in the various cities and large towns of the State. Most of the
institutions embraced in these several classes suffer fiom over-crowding,
including many even of the county jails, which last are, for the most
part, in a condition not to be commended. The number of prisoners
confint'd in the police prisons, where the detention is often only for a
H. Ex.'lSo 28
434 NATIONAL PEISON KEFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
few hours, aud never for more than a few (lays, is. not known to the
writer. The popuhition of the other prisons named above, in the autumn
of 1872, was as follows: State prisons, 2,924; penitentiaries, 2,435; coun-
ty jails, 1,600 : making an aggregate of 6,959. The number of children
and youths contiued in the five reformatories, viz, the two houses of ref-
uge, the asylum for juvenile delinquents, and the Catholic i)rotectories,
(male and female,) was 4,000. This gives a total number of i)ersous
Tinder restraint and in custody for violations of law, not including those
in police jails, of 10,959.
The total annual number of convictions for felonies by courts of record
is less than 2,500, and by lower courts, ranking as courts of sessions,
the number is about 80,000.
The law which allows a prisoner to shorten his term of sentence by
good conduct and industry i^ the most effective instrument of discipline
at present known to our prison administration. The dark cell, reduced
diet, perforated paddle, and all other forms of punishment in use, bear
no comparison in their deterring intluence and moral power to that
of the fear of losing the small gain of time in their sentence allowed by
the commutation law.
A perfect understanding now exists between the board of inspectors
of the state prisons and the New York Prison Association as to their
mutual relations and the rights of the association as regards admission
into the prisons and the use of agencies for the salvation of the con-
victs after their liberation. In each of the three state prisons the cor-
responding secretary is provided with an office, where he is permitted
10 send for and converse with any and all prisoners whom he may de-
sire to see, and to counsel and aid with reference particularly to employ-
ment after their discharge. The prison wardens, chaplains, and clerks
iave been officially instructed by the board to give all the information
•and aid desired by the association for the furtherance of this end, so
that it may be enabled to render all the service possible, both to the
convicts on their release and to the interests of society and humanity,
on whose behalf the service is performed. Lists of the prisoners to be
discharged each month are sent to the association in advance, and the
secretary visits regularly all the prisons, and has an interview with
every such prisoner, to ascertain his physical condition, ability, wishes,
purposes, and whatever else may be helpful to him in enabling him to
procure work the instant he becomes a free man, if his intention is to
pursue an honest way of life. The key to the success that has followed
this eflbrt is the employment register, which contains classified lists
of more than three hundred employers in thirty different occupations
and trades of the best-organized industries all over the State. The
private interviews with each convict during the few weeks immediately
preceding liberation constitute the first essential step in the whole
eflbrt. Cheat pains are taken in these interviews to reach the convict's
judgment, conscience, and heart, and to give him definite instruction and
advice concerning common duties and the personal safeguards and care
which he will most need when liberated. Care is taken also, on the
other hand, to secure in each chosen emi)loyer a true and earnest co-
worker in the eifort to save these nieii, who are struggling toward a
return to honest industry and resi>ectability. As no intermediate stage
of testing or i)reparati<)n is i)ossible, under (existing circumstances, in
-^lenling with convicts discharged irom the New York piisons, and as it
's all-important that they be usefully ein|>loyed from the day of libera-
Tion, and that, as far as possible, they be dissuaded (rom going into the
Jarge cities, excejit undc^r rare circumstaiujcs and definite stipulations
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 435
concerning suitable and constant emi)loyTnent, it is not too nuicli to say
concerning the bel{)('ul interest and efforts of the employers who have
lent us their aid in this work, that theirs is the noblest share in it.
Modify- and improve the present method of this duty as we may, and,
indeed, as events and progress in it must require, still the employer
who continues to offer to the liberated convict the means for honorable
and self-sup[)orting industry and a replacement in the ranks of honest
citizenship, will continue to be a chief dependence in all this difiicult
task.
Each state prison and mostof the ])eiiitentiaries and larger jails make
monthly returns to the New York Prison Association, showing the date
■of report; the name, nativity, age, and crime of the i)risoner; from what
county and by what court sentenced; term of sentence; reduction of
sentence by good conduct; foruier habits and occupation ; his employ-
ment in prison; his social relations and residence of nearest friends;
present physical condition as regards ability to labor; amount of money
ready for him on liberation; together with such general remarks as the
authorities may see fit to append. A card is given to each liberated
prisoner, on his entering upon the situation provided for him, containing
sundry counsels, of which the following may serve as a specimen: Form
the habit of depositing in a savings bank from 25 to 75 per cent, of your
wages every i^ay day. Keep clear of all bad associates. Maintain a
habit of useful reading; with other like maxims. It is expected by the
association and the employer that the person thus aided will promise, l,to
live prudently and honorably; 2, to labor faithfully and punctually; 3, to
abstain from intoxicating drinks; 4, to maintain self respect ; 5, to de-
serve the respect of others; 6, to agree with his employer concerning
the projiortion of monthly or weekly savings.
The Houses of Refuge, the Asylum for Juvenile Delinquents, the Catho-
lic Protectories, the House of the Good Shepherd, the Children's Aid
Society, the Truant Homes, and other like agencies, in the metropolis
and other large towns, are continually snatching multitudes of children
and youth from destruction as " brands from the burning." They are
adding at least 10,000 good, useful, and happy lives every year to the
population of the country, while subtracting the same number from the
crowded ranks of the vicious and the criminal.
18. North Carolina.
By Bev. G. William Weller, former meniber of the board of directors.
The object that the National Prison Association sets before itself, in
seeking reports from the several States, it may safely be assumed, is
not merely to learn the number, character, and adequacy of their penal,
reformatory, and preventive institutions, nor what may already have
been accomplished in the direction of the work undertaken by the
association, but also to seek data from which to learn what is yet to be
done, to discover what hiuderances are in the way of this work, and the
peculiar condition or character of their populations that have a bearing
on the question, if any such exist. It is proposed, in this report, to offer
such facts, in regard to our State, as may present the nj,iture and condi-
tion of the field for penal disciplmo and reformatory effort as it now
exists; to present explanations that may account, partially at least, for
the inadequacy of institutions for the ijreventiou of crime and the little
436 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
interest felt iu the welfare of onr criminal population ; and to indicate
the diflBcnlties to be encountered in the prosecution of tlie great work of
the reformation of prison discipline and in the efforts to prevent the
formation of a criminal class.
There needs, perhaps, a glance at the topography of the State to
enable the reader to comprehend some facts to be stated in this report.
One of the original thirteen States, the territory of North Carolina
began to be settled at an early date. Its area is 50,704 square miles,
which is more than that of New York ; and yet the population is only
1,071,361, Of this population 678,470 are white and ol)l,650 colored.
Of the entire population only 3,029 are of foreign birth. The territorial
extent and homogeneity of population will have a bearing on the
statistics of crime in this State and on the character of its penal insti-
tutions. North Carolina never has become a refuge for the vicious
populations of other States and countries. Its reputation for obedience
to law and its freedom from crime, before the rebellion, were known to the
whole country. Commerce has never much flourished in this State.
Its coast, though extended, bai'S ingress to its riv^ers by shifting sand-
bars and maddened storms, which seem to keep guard against the out-
side world. There are no large cities into which the shipping of the
world, in bringing its products, brings also its crimes. Wilmington, the
largest city in the State, has a population that does not exceed 15,000,
while no other reaches 10,000.
North Carolina was a slave State until 1865 ; manufactures were
never encouraged ; and hence its streams are not lined with manufac-
turing villages that give employment in their mills to a floating popu-
lation, in which are commonly found those who swell the calendar of
crime. A verj' large i)ro])ortion of the million of its population is and
has ever been engaged in planting and farming. While the farms were
valued at $143,301,005, the capital invested in manufactures and trades
was only $9,003,703. So the population is largely rural, and thinly
scattered over a wide domain, having no populous and wealthy centers.
in such population cai)ital crime is unusual. Vagrants are not tolera-
ted, and hence soil is wanting lor the vicious classes. This may account;,
in i)art, for the fact that the attention of the State was not at an earlier
day directed to the question of penal discipline.
That a State should grow as old as North Carolina, and yet have
done so little in the way of preventing crime and reforming its
vicious classes, nuiy be owing to the fact that general intelligence has
not been diffnsed among the |)eople; that public schools are not appre-
ciated, and that those who will not voluntarily tax themselves to organize
schools and build scluxd houses for their own children, would naturally
refuse to submit to tiixation lor the creation of institutions to prevent
crinu' or rcloiiu criminals. The legislature of the State is mostly con-
trolled l)y the tax ])ayers; their inlliu'nce is seen iu the practical denial
of the axiom that "an oun(r(^ of prevention is worth a i)ound of (Hire.''
Although the constitution of the State, fornu'd in 3868 by men of liberal
and j)roj;ressive vi(nvs, juovided lor the (ireation of a board of " i)ublic
ehiiiities," vet to this lioui- the general assend>ly, under its narrow and
obsolefir views, has denied thut lK)ar<[ ail meiins for its work, even te^
(he pul)li.shing of its ;innu;d repoits. AVhile the constitution jtrovides
tor the, ei'eclion of iu\enil<^ asylums, reforuuitories, »&(•,., nothing has
been done Ml this direct ion, and the feai- of taxation ]>ar;dy/.es every
elfort, at saving the large nunil>er of youths that ar<i left toeriruinal associ-
ations. The re<rent political and social revolution hascreate«l a necessity
of this kind, which is not lelt as its pressing character demands. A pop-
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF NOETH CAROLINA. 437
ulatioii now requires tLe care of the State which, under the regime of
shivery, rarely had its misdeeds brouj^ht to the notice of the courts.
The shive being a chattel, most of his petty crimes were punished by
the master, the patrol, or by a magistrate having summary jurisdiction.
This state of affairs kept a large part of the crimes against society, not
of the most serious character, from public view and knowledge, and
relieved the State from direct concern. Slaves of every age being
projierty, and, by the law, the owners being, in some degree, made liable
for their con<luct, the former could not conveniently be made objects of
such legislative care as would express itself in reformatories and work-
houses, where criminal propensity could be cured, and progress in crime
arrested. These facts should be allowed their just force when we come
to learn the position of the State in making provision for her existing,
criminal population.
The coustitntiou of the courts, the forms of legal procedure, and the
jienalties against crime were, in their main features, down to the era of
emancipation, those of the colonial days of the State ; and the progress
in criminal jurisprudence made by other States had hardly left its im-
press upom our statutes or our courts. In all the statutory laws of
many years is seen and felt the presence of slavery. No care was had
for the prevention of crime but such as grew out of the deterrent
power of severe punishments. While the law visited condign punish-
ment on all convicted offeu<lers, there was no wise or kind forethought
in its provisions by which to prevent or reclaim any class of citizens
from becoming or continuing criminals. Every person convicted of a
felony was looked upon as degraded beyond the regard or sympathy of
society. He was subjected to the tortures of the whipping-post, the
branding-iron, or, still worse, the loathsome companionship of the county
prisons. It never came into mind that the lowly, the unfortunate, or
the fallen still retained sensibilities which could be outraged, or that
they were worth an effort of the State to reform and save them. Deep-
rooted prejudice still holds the public mind to barbarous modes of pun-
ishment and counts offenders as outcasts, hopelessly lost to all the
claims of humanity and religion. When in 1848 the question was sub-
mitted to the vote of the electors of the State, "penitentiary" or "wo
penitentiary," it was voted "]!!No"with a iierfect frenzy, not a single
county, probably, voting in fiivor of such an institution. So until the
revolution of 1861-'05, the only place of confinement for the convicted
and those awaiting trial was the county jail.
There is a jail in each of the ninety or more counties of the State.
Among all these prisons there is not one that would be a proper place
in which to confine a human being under any circumstances. In their
structure no regard is had for proper ventilation. Many of them have no
means of being warmed even in the coldest season. Very often there is
found in them a most offensive uncleanliness. In these loathsome
places all whose misfortune or crime makes them liable to imprisonment
are huddled together, young and old, the guilty and the innocent, the
hardened criminal and the youth arrested for his first offense. Here
they are kept without work, without instruction, without occupation of
any kind, except to recite and listen to recitals of robbery and crime.
Thus the jail becomes a school of crime, in which its inmates are pre-
pared for a life of resistance to the laws of God and man.
The framers of the constitution adopted by the peo])le of North Car-
olina in 1808 made provision for the future of this State as regards
reformatory and penal institutions. Had the intentions of that body
been realized, the State would now have a secure and comfortable state
438 NATIONAL PRISON EEFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
prison. The site selected is on a fine and liealtby elevation, west of the
city of Raleigh, on the line of the North Carolina Railroad, with a side-
track rnnning into the prison yard. At present only the foundation of
the prison has been completed, its further progress being hindered by
partisan legislation. The convicts are confined in temporary wooden
huts, and are mainly employed in grading the grounds, in quarrying
stone, and in building the exterior wall surrounding the prison yard.
The number confined in the penitentiary during the year ending ISTo-
vember 1, 1872, was 493. Of these, 102 were whites and 391 colored;
352 could neither read nor write; 335 were natives of the State; 4 only
were foreigners; and 112 were under twenty years of age. Nearly three-
fourths of the convictions were for larceny, and almost all for crimes
against property.
Of the 493 convicts, 33 died during the year, one in every 15, or nearly
7 per cent. This is a fearful mortality. The cell-huts are overcrowded;
they cannot be ventilated; and they cannot be heated in the coldest
weather. There may be other causes, but no State can be justified in
such waste of human life by refusing to provide well ventilated and
comfortable cells with wholesome food and plenty of it.
The penitentiary is managed by a board of five directors, appointed
by the legislature, who name the warden, steward, and other officers.
The rules, originally adopted by those whose duty it was made to
organize it, forbid all harsh and degrading treatment. The treatment
was intended to be such as to win to a better life by kindness. Respect
was had to the manhood of the ])risoner, who was to be treated as one
who might create for himself an honorable future. How far the philan-
thropic spirit of these regulations is carried out at present, the writer
has no means of knowing.
In the existing condition of the prison building it is not possible to
classify the convicts. No effort is made to keep tliem separate for any
moral or reformatory end. Youthful transgressors, unused to the dark
ways of crime, are put into a hut-cell witii hardened villains who have
reached the utmost bound of human wickedness. The boy of eighteen
who took a piece of bread to satisfy hunger, or in a momentary passion
committed an assault upon a fellow, isi)laced under the immediate train-
ing of those who are guilty of murder and robbery, finished adepts in.
crime. So, too, the prisoner who is repentant and tries to amend his
life, who is industrious, obedient, and docile, is put in daily contact with
the obstinate and ungovernable, who i)lot escapes and plan schemes of
mischief. AViiile the State provides no instructors in letters or morality,
it nevertheless has teaching done, and sustains a school for crime, in
which graduated villains teach the uninitiated all its secrets.
No ])rovision, as just intimated, is made for scholastic; or religious
insinuation. The gr<'at mass of ignoiance has not a ray of light to
|)ieice and enlighten its darkness during all the years of incarceration.
From the statement i)reviously made in regard to the illiteracy of the
convicts, it clearly aj)pears how much ignorairce has had to do with
sending them to state |)rison, and how much it is both the duty and in-
terest of the State, while these neglected creatures are its wards, to
educate tliem at least so as to fit them tor common business life. A
neat and comfortable chapel has been erected, but there is no chajdaiu,
no I>il)l<^<•lass, no Sunday-school. An oc<'asional sermon is preached to
the prisoners, as some clergyman may be had to do it: that is all.
Jt is a sad lot, indeed, for youths, and those new to crime, that
they should not Ix' brought under the. teachings of the Christian relig-
ion. Jt is matU'r of aslonislMuent that, while the State fails in this
STATE PRISON OF OREGON. 439
work, it is uot taken up by the private effort of tbe Christian people
and chnrchos of tlie city of Kaleigh. Here is work for a " Yoiiug Men's
Christian Association " that will, in some measure, make amends for
the neglect of a Christian State.
No abbreviation of sentence is allowed under the laws of the State.
Good behavior or proof of reformation goes for nothing. There is no
difference between being an obedient, docile, and industrious convict
and an obdurate and obstinate one ; both go forth free when their whole
term of sentence is completed, and not till then. Even in a peniten-
tiary there should be some recognition of right-doing, and such con-
victs as demean themselves well should redeem time from the term ot
their sentence. A measure of this kind is no novelty. It has become
an element in prison discipline of many of our States and not a few
foreign countries, and everywhere its good results have made themselves
abundantly manifest. No provision is made either by the State or by
imvate charity to aid and encourage, on their discharge, such prisoners
as show some disposition to change their course and lead an honest
life.
It was the purpose of the legislature which made the original appoint-
ment of directors, to relieve the penitentiary of all partisan character
in its management, but events overruled their purpose, and now, as
in most institutions belonging to the State, not only the directors but
all the subordinate officials are appointed in view of their partisan re-
lations. It is to be hoped that time will teach a better way.
There are no refornnitory or preventive institutions in the State. The
constitution makes provision for their creation, but so far it has remained
a dead-letter.
19. Oregon.
No formal report was received from this State, but in a private letter
received by the secretary of the National Prison Association from the
Rev. Dr. Atkinson, he Estates that, as regards prison reform, things
are moving on hopefully there. He says that new and greatly
improved prison constructions for the State penitentiary are in progress,
with ample grounds; that the system of scholastic, moral, and religious
education has been much enlarged and placed on a better footing ; that
the prison dietary is excellent: that whipping has been abolished, and
more humane and rational disciplinary treatment has been substi-
tuted, not only without loss, but rather gain, to the good order and
obedience of the prisoners; that a kindly and hopeful feeling as regards
the reformation of the prisoners begins to be entertained quite exten-
sively by the people of the State ; that, upon the whole, the state prison
of Oregon may be said to be in a good condition, and to be doing well ;
that the chief city of the State last year completed a fine police court-
room and prison, in which the rooms are well lighted and ventilated,
and every way comfortable; that the county jail in the same place is in
the basement of the court-house, and consequently rather damp, but
that effort is making to improve the ventilation, and make it at once
safe for health and more comfortable for its inmates; that a law has
been enacted to establish' a reform school for boys and girls, and trus-
tees appointed to carry it into effect; and that the abundant efforts of
late put forth in this and other couutries, through congresses, public
meetings, the pulpit, and the press, in the great work of prison reform,
440 NATIONAL PKISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
have borne their legitimate fruit Id Oregon, in awakening in the good
people of that State, tliought, interest, and exertion.
20. EnoDE Island.
By licv. Aittjasiwi ll'oodhury, chairman of (««j;6*t/ors of lihodc J>:Ia)ul vtutt- prison.
The State of Rhode Island is divided into five counties, and in 1870
had a population of 217,353.
The i)enal and reformatory institutions of the State consist of
the town bridewells, the city station houses, the county jails, the
state prison, the Providence reform school, and the state farm.
The bridewells and station houses are under the care of their re-
spective municipal governments. The county jails, with the excep-
tion of the jail for Providence county, are in the charge of the sheriffs
of the counties, who are elected annually by the general assembly.
The state prison and the Providence county jail, together with the house
of correction, all within the same iuclosure and beneath one roof,
are administered hy a board of seven inspectors appointed annually by
the governor. The Providence reform school is under the direction of
a board of trustees, six in number, elected annually by the city coun-
cil, to whom is added the mayor ex-opcio. The management of the
state farm is placed in the hands of the board of State charities and
corrections, consisting of six members, appointed by the governor, with
a term of service for six years, one of the board retiring every year.
The board elect a secretary, who thus becomes a member ex-officio. In
addition to the several boards of management there is a visiting board of
ladies, whose duty it is to visit and inspect all places where females are
imprisoned. All these boards make annual reports to the general
assembly, with the exception of the trustees of the Providence reform
school, who report to the city council.
The county jails.
The county jails outside of Providence are inspected by the justices
of the supreme court at the commencement of each term. The jails
are reported to be at present in good condition and secure. The num-
ber of commitments, except in I'rovidence, is very small. During the
past year there have been only 1!)2 persons committed. On the 31st of
December, 1872, there were in jail 0 i)risoners in the whole State. In
Providence county there have been 1,719 commitments during the
year, 109 of whom were women ; and on the 31st of lJecen)ber there
were 113 prisoners, 101 males and 0 females, in jail; average number,
^'^nV<.' ^'y ^^"' ''Statute all i)risoners punishable by line of not less than
•l!5, or a term of imprisonment of not less than thirty days, are to be
^r'ntcriccd fo (lie I'rovidence county jail.
The state prison.
Lu the year 1707 tli<'. general assembly ordered the erection of a state
jirison, in connection with a new jail lor the county of Providence, but
in the Ibllowing y<'ar the order was rescinded, and it was not until
18.''».~> that measures were adopted looking to the |)n>ject of building a
jtrison lor the State's (convicts. The general assembly, in January of
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF RHODE ISLAND. 441
that year, referred the matter to the freemen of the State, to be decided
by a ])opular vote. In April the vote was taken, resulting;- in 4,433
votes in favor of hnildinj;' tlio prison, and 502 against it. The general
assembly, npon ascertaining tlic will of the people, and after examining
the merits of the Pennsylvania and Aubnrn systems, gave tlie prefer-
ence to the former, and directed that a prison shonld be bnilt accord-
ingly. The building was completed in 1S38, and in November of that
year was opened, with three convicts as the total number of its inmates,
before the end oif the month two more were added. At the expiration
of the first year of the prison, September 30, 1830, the number had in-
creased to ten. On the 30th of September, 1840, there were sixteen
convicts in prison, fifteen males and one female. At this time the pop-
ulation of the State was 108,830.
Four years' trial of the Pennsylvania system convinced the inspectors
and the immediate officers of the prison that the mode of separate con-
finement with labor was harmful in its eifects. Workshops were erected
in 1843. At a later period the necessity of a new and better constructed
prison became evident, and in 1852 a new building, containing eighty-
eight cells, was erected, at a cost of $17,032 37. This was constructed
as an addition or wing to the former prison, which was thenceforward
used as a jail for the county. The constantly increasing number of jail
]nisoners compelled a larger provision for their accommodation, and in
1855-'5G another wing was added to the prison, containing seventy-tw^o
cells and two hospitals ; a new wall was built and a new workshop
erected, at a cost of 847,143 37. One-half of this wing was used for
the imprisonment of female convicts. Ten years later the county jail
was relieved of most of its female inmates, and at present a single
corridor of cells, entirely separated by heavy flooring and partitions
from the remainder of the buikling, sufiices for the restraint of female
prisoners. On the 31st of December, 1872, there were in the state
prison two and in the jail nine females. In the state prison there were
at the same date seventy-one convicts; in the jail one hundred and thir-
teen prisoners. For the internal administration of the prison and jail there
are required a warden, deputy warden, and eight assistant male officers,
and a matron, chaplain, and physician. The warden, chaplain, and physi-
cian are appointed by the inspectors. The other officers are appointed by
the warden, subject to the approval of the inspectors. In the internal
administration of the prison a system of classification has been adopted
by which the prisoners have been divide:! into five grades: 1. Excel-
lent: 2. good; 3. tolerably good ; 4 unsatisfactory; 5. bad. In 1872
the following results appeared: First grade, 33 ; second, 10 ; third, 10:
fourth, 34; fifth, 4. The schedule is prepared monthly and submitted
to the. inspectors at every monthly meeting of the board. The inspect-
ors, to whom the entire control of the state prison is committed, have
full power and authority, according to the statute, to enlarge the con-
finement of the convicts and regulate their labor and exercise within
the limits of the prison yard or of any of the prison buildings. They
hold monthly meetings, audit all the accounts of the warden, make con-
tracts for the labor of the prisoners, by one of their number visit the
IHison at least twice every month for purposes of inspection or for hear-
ing the complaints of the prisoners, and have, in general, the complete
oversight of the institution. The prison is divided into six departments,
of general management, of labor and finance, of religious and other in-
struction, of sanitary condition, of repairs and of supplies. The first de-
l^artment is under the charge of two inspectors, one of whom is the
chairman of the board ; the other departments are under the charge
442 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
each of one inspector. The service of the board is rendered without
any remuneration of any kind, except exemption from jury and military
service. The prison at the present time is self-supporting. For the
year 1872 the profits of both prison and jail amounted to 8 1,518.90 ; iu
1871 the income above expenses was $3,018.46. The labor of the prison-
ers, shoe-making, is performed under contract, at the rate of 70 cents
per day for state prisoners, 35 cents for jail prisoners, 17i^ cents for
prisoners who work less than thirty days. The whole number of con-
victs committed to the state prison since its opening, in 1838, is 092.
The expense of maintenance ^>er capita, for 1872, was 8110.75.
The Froridence Reform School.
In May, 1847, the Providence Association of Mechanics and Manu-
facturers memorialized the city council of Providence for the establish-
ment Of a house of reformation. In 1850 an act was passed by the gen-
eral assembly authorizing the city to establish a " school for the con-
tinement, instruction, and reformation of juvenile offenders and of young
persons of idle, vicious, or vagrant habits," the government of which
was to be vested, as already stated, in a board of seven trustees. The
trustees are empowered to receive into the school thus established all
such children, under the age of eighteen years, who shall be convicted,
before any court sitting within the citj' limits, as vagrants or disorderly
persons, or of criminal offenses, or of offenses against the city ordi-
nances, and such children as shall be convicted of criminal offenses be-
fore any court in the State, or of the United States sitting within the
state limits. They may also admit any child above the age of five
years, at the request of parents or guardinn. Children thus sentenced
or admitted shall be held under restraint for a term not longer than
during their minority or less than two years, the trustees having the
power of discharging such chiklren as are considered reformed, before
the expiration of their sentence, or of binding out the children as ap-
prentices, or, in cases of incorrigibility, of remanding them to the county
jail, house of correction, or state prison. The}' are, while inmates ot
the s«hool, to be taught in virtue and morality, and in such branches of
useful knowledge as shall be suited to their age and capacity. They
are also to be instructed in regular courses of labor. The expense of
maintaining the scliool is divided between the State and the city, the
former paying tiie actual cost of supi)ortingtlie children who have been
sentenced by the courts, the latter i)aying tor buihlings, grounds, sala-
ries, instructors, and the like. The cost of maintaining, deducting the
earnings of the chihlren, is estiniited at the rate of $110.87 for each in-
mate; without such deduction, $218.00.
A larg(^ hotel in the south ])art of the city, overlooking a very beau-
tiful pr()s])ect of Nan-agansett Day and the adjacent slun-es, known to
the traveling i)ublic of former days as the Tockwotton House, was i)ur-
cliased by the. city of l'rovid{Mice, and the school was formally opened
November 1, iSfiO. In Jaiiuiiry, 1854, tlie Hon. W. 11. Stai)]es, an emi-
nent jurist of Ithode. Island, delivered a (;harge to the grand jury, at the
opening of his court, in wlii(;h he speaks thus of the school : " It was
opposed in the, beginning by some of the citizens of Providence as not
being within the i;uige of objects jirop mIv belonging to a municii)al
corporation. On llu^ triist(M's and other oiiicers it imposed <luties and
responsihililies, every ]>iirt of wliieli to them was new and untried.
They h;id gleaned soin<' inlbiination IVoni othei" similar institutions, but
that kno\vle<lge was, of course, only theoretical. The buildings where
EEFOKMATOKY INSTITUTIONS OF RIIOEE ISLAND. 443
it is establislied were erected for very different objects, and of course
are not so convenient or well adapted for its present use as one built
expressly for such a school would be. Many are the disadvantages
under which it has had to labor. Still, it has been more successful in
its results than its friends anticipated, and promises to give effectual
aid in diminishing the number of prisoners in our county jail and state
l^rison." * * * * Its inmates, he goes on to say, within its
walls " are secluded from all the associations which tend further to cor-
rupt them. There, habits of industry, sobriety, and sober reflection are
substituted for idleness, profanity, intemperance, and folly. There, all
the deficiencies of their early moral culture may be supplied, and they
have the benefit of good example, wholesome instruction, the means of
improvement in virtue and knowledge, and the opportunity of becom-
ing intelligent, moral, and useful members of society." Since the time
at which this charge was delivered the school has been improved by
the addition of new buildings, the extension of its grounds, and an en-
largement of its means of instruction.
Within the last three years an addition has been made to the north
wing of the main building — for the accommodation of the boys belong-
ing to the school — furnishing accommodations for thirty-six dormito-
ries, each 4 feet 6 inches by 8 feet, neatly furnished and amply venti-
lated ; a large finely lighted school-room, 35 feet by 47 feet, and 12 feet
high, furnished with desks for one hundred pupils, supplied with black-
boards and all the necessary appliances for thorough instruction, and
connecting with a large room — 19 feet by 12 feet — for the library and
class recitations; and a fine bathroom, with a tank 12 feet by 17 feet,
and 3| feet deep, with closets for clothes, &c. The building is of three
stories — 37 feet 6 inches by 02 feet G inches — with a slated French roof
and a dry, large basement, under two-thirds, the other third forming a
covered arcade for the protection of the boys from the weather while
engaged in recreation in the yard. It is hoped that, before long, a sim-
ilar building will be erected for the girls. It is very greatly needed,
and has been earnestly recommended.
The number of inmates from the opening of the school to November
30, 1872, is 1,010 boys and 433 girls. The average number of months in
the institution of those discharged has been, for all committed, 10.9 for
boys, 22.2 for girls. Inmates have been received from every town and'
city in the State, except New Shoreham. and from one or two places
beyond the territorial limits of Rhode Island. Instruction is given in
reading, writing, geograi)hy, arithmetic, sewing, and other domestic
labors. Gardening and fruit-culture have also received considerable-
attention, and the labor performed in the workshop amounts to a sum
not far from $20,000 annually. Eor the year 1872, the amount received
from labor, $21,977.40. The" number of inmates committed during the
year ending November 30, 1872, has been 103 boys and 10 girls; num-
ber discharged, 107 boys and 24 girls. The number in the school No-
vember 30, 1872, was 156 boys and 37 girls. The superintendent esti-
mates that the system pursued is beneficial to the extent of reforming
and saving to society about 75 per cent, of the boys and 50 per cent, of
the girls. The institution is under the charge of a superintendent, an
assistant superintendent, a matron, an assistant matron and nurse,
physician, steward, two male and two female teachers, four male and
five female overseers. Eeligious services are held every Sunday after-
noon, conducted by members of the board of trustees, or by gentlemen
invited by them for the purpose, A Sunday-school is held every Sun-
day in the forenoon, 9i to 11. The trustees hold quarterly meetings in
444 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
Marcli, June, September, and December. A committee of tbe trustees
meet twice each moutb for visitation and other necessary business.
They perform their duties gratuitously. They declare, in their last
printed report, that " the-general condition of the institution is entirely
satisfactory to the trustees, and its prospects of usefulness in the future
highly encouraging." The system of management, discipline, &c., is
the "congregate." The lady visitors are of the opinion that, for the
girls at least, the family system would be preferable.
The state farm.
At the January session of the general assembly in the year 18G7, a
t;ommittee was appointed to "inquire into the expediency of erecting a
state asylum for the insane." At the January session in the year 1868,
the committee reported favorably upon the subject, and a new committee
was appointed for the purpose of selecting a suitable place for such an
institution — it being understood that a tract of lancf containing not
less than 200 acres should be purchased. In the view of this committee,
a necessity" existed for a new house of correction, as well as an asylum
for the insane. In 18G9, at the January session, a third committee was
appointed, with power to buy a suitable farm for the two institutions
and "for such other purposes as the general assembly may direct." The
••committee was also instructed to report a "plan for the organization
and establishment of a house of correction and state i^auper system."
A tract of land, containing 398 acres, finely situated, in the town of
Cranston, was purchased for the sum of $27,500, and soon after the 1st
of June, 1869, came into possession of the State. . On the 28th of May
of the same year, an act was passed establishing a board of state char-
ities and corrections. This board consists of six persons appointed for
six years, two from the county of Providence, and one from each of the
other counties in the State, with power to choose a secretary, who, by
virtue of his ofSce, becomes an associate member. The board was also
tlirected to appoint a superintendent of state charities and corrections,
to whom was to be committed the duty of overseeing the general busi-
ness of the board, of examining paupers and lunatics, and of removing
them to their proper "places of settlement." The act contemplated the
erection of a state workhouse, a house of correction, a state asylum
for the incurable insane, and a state almshouse. The inmates of the
state workhouse were to consist of persons who had abandoned, neg-
lected, or refused to aid in the supi)ort of their families ; idle persons, of
doubtful reputation, and having no visible means of support; sturdy
beggars, vagrants, prostitutes, common drunkards, night-walkers, lewd
and lascivious persons, frecjuentersof i)lacesof ill-repute, cheats and dis-
orderly ])ersons — and these were to be sentenced for a term not less than
.six months nor more than three years. The board can require any
st<!amshi|) or railroad comi)any to make returns of the names, sex, ages.
and nativity of any (;lass of ])assengers brought into Rhode Island, and
the company is lialihi for the support of any [)auper thus introduced into
the State U)v the peiiod of twelve months, or for his return to the place
whcrKK', he was brought. Tlie citicvs and towns in the State may send to
th<' stale aliushonsc, all ]>aiipeis not having a legal settlement within
their respective, limits. Any lunatic having no h^gal settlement in the
State, hut supported by any town or <;ity, if iiunirably insane, nniy be
sent to the state asylum, to b(^ supported at the <\xpense of the State.
The incurably insiiue win* have a legal, settlement are to be sent to the
asylum, to be sup[)orted by the town or city to which they respectively
►STATE FARM OF KHODE ISLAND. 445
belong?. Auy inmate of tbe reform school who may be considered in-
corrigible, or unfit to remain in said school, may he transferred to the
state worlv-hoase. The board of state charities and corrections have
the power of discharging any of the inmates of the institutions upon the
farm, and of binding them out for service with suitable and trustworthy
persons.
The board, immediately upon taking possession of the farm — increased
by subsequent purchase to 4l7.7 acTcs — began the erection of buildings
suitable for the reception of the expected inmates. Two workhouses
and two buildings for the insane were erected during the year 18G0; an
additional building, for the accommodation of the violent insane, and a
chapel were erected in 1870. In 1871 measures were adopted for build-
ing a strong workhouse, which could also be used for a house of cor-
rection, which, it is expected, will soon be completed and occupied. It
is constructed of stone, and will provide for the accommodation of" two
hundred male and one hundred female inmates, properly graded, with
complete separation of the sexes." Eeligious services have been held
from time to time, conducted by different gentlemen and ladies, and a
Sunday-school was in successful operation during the years 1870 and
1871. A fire at the farm in April, 1872, destroyed the chapel and inter-
rupted both the school and Sunday services.
The amount expended for all purposes at the farm from June 1, 1869,
to January 1, 1873, has been $371,441.15. The property is valued at
$212,227.07. It is believed that the amount has really been more than
saved to the State by the removal of paupers not belonging to the State
to their proper places of settlement and abode. The whole number of
inmates received at the state workhouse from the beginning to January
1, 1873, is 1,271, of whom 350 were females and 912 were males ; of these
695 were of foreign parentage. The whole number of insane persons
received at the farm is 230 ; the number remaining January 1, 1873, was
153 — 70 males, 83 females. The board of state charities is organized
with a chairman and secretary and five standing committees: 1, on the
farm ; 2, on supplies ; 3, on buildings and repairs ; 4, on labor and dis-
cipline; 5, on finance and audit of accounts. The executive officers are
a suijerintendent of state charities and corrections, a superintendent
of the state farm, a deputy superintendent of the w^orkhouse, a deputy
superintendent of the insane asylum, and a physician. Under-ofificers,
matrons, «&e., are appointed according to^ the needs of the institution.
The board serve gratuitouslj^, except that their necessary expenses for
traveling and attendance upon their meetings are paid by the State.
The objects proposed by the establishment of the state farm were,
1. The removal of paupers, not domiciled in the State, to the places where
they really belonged. 2. An improvement in the care of paupers and
the insane poor, which was greatly needed in Ehode Island. 3. The re-
formation of vagrants, drunkards, abandoned women, and the like.
The first two of these objects have been fully attained. In the years
1870 and 1871, 465, in 1872, 125 paupers were removed from the State.
The insane department is regarded with jieculiar satisfaction. " The
unfortunate persons in that department," says the secretary of the board,
•' are made comfortable and as happy as is jjossible for them to be. It
is certain that the condition of those brought from town poor-houses is
greatly improved, and even those brought from our best hospitals pro-
fess to be pleased with the change." In regard to the third object pro-
posed, results have not been so satisfactory as was anticipated. It was
hoped that absence from temptation, the benefit of pure air and simple
foodj regular habits, out-of-door work, surrounded by scenes of natural
446 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF J873,
beauty, and wise aud carefal iustructiou and oversight, would materi-
ally aid in reclaiming those unfortimate persons who are overcome by
appetite and lust. Sentences were made, in a measure, indeterminate,
the board having power to discharge those who are considered as having
been benefited by their restraint. It is estimated that but very few
persons have thus far been reclaimed from dissipation and vice. The
board believe that a larger number than ever before has been benefited
during the last year. The secretary, in his report for 1871, regards the
moral and reformatory agencies as a failure. He attributes the poor
results in this direction to three causes : 1. " The depravity of the human
heart when educated in a course of dissipation." 2. "The situation and
circumstances of the workhouse itself, the crowded halls aud dormito-
ries rendering all privacy impossible." The building used as a work-
house is evidently unfit for the ])urposes of its erection. 3. The short-
ness of the time of sentence. Half a year, which is frequently the term
of sentence, is too brief for weaning these men and women from the
habits of nearly a lifetime. He suggests as remedies, 1. Longer sen-
tences. 2. A complete change in the internal arrangement of the work-
house, which he hopes will be effected in the new building. 3. Greater
efforts to awaken the minds of the inmates, and to give them proper in-
struction in evening and other schools, and by familiar lectures and ad-
dresses and religious exercises on Sundays. The board, however, feel
assured that better aud more encouraging results have ai)peared within
the past year, and they look forward hopefully to the future. Still it
must be borne in mind that our state farm is of very recent establish-
ment, and is yet to be regarded somewhat in the light of an experiment.
The buildings were hastily erected, and were at once crowded with oc-
cupants. An imperfect system of organization i^revailed, and afifixirs
became somewhat chaotic. Such is always the case with a new enterprise
which is hurriedly undertaken, for the supply of an immediate and
pressing need. As more^uitable buildings shall be erected and a more
thorough system of government come into operation, there can be no
douljt of beneficial results. A judicious and persevering effort to treat
"he whole subject of reformatory and punitive discipline with practical
sagacity, with scientific method, and a humane spirit, cannot fail of
success.
Board of female visitors.
The board of female visitors to institutions where women are impris-
oned WHS constituted in the year 1870. It consists of seven ladies, ap-
pointed annually by tiie governor. These ladies visit the different penal
and reformatory institutions in the State, and are organized with a presi-
<lenl, secretary, and three committees: 1. To visit the state prison. 2,
To visit the Providence reform school, o. To visit the state farm.
Tlieir duty is to visit and inspect these i)la(;es, converse with the women
and girls there under restraint, and oiler such suggestions as they
tliink aie necessary in the (lases which come to their knowledge. It is
belie\cd that their work has been ellicient and valuable, and it is hoped
that ere long se])arate- {irisons and reformatories for wonuMi will be es-
T;ibh'slied, to be wholly under the control of persons of their own sex.
Coninintaiiou.
Ill order to complete the view lieie given of our treatment of the
crittiinal class under sentence, 1 Avould say, in addition, that a system
STATE PENITENTIARY OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 447
of commutation prevails in tbe state i)rison, allowing to convicts for
good behavior one day in each month for every year of sentence be-
low live years ; and that it is in contemplation to allow convicts a cer-
tain portion of their earnings. Capital punishment was abolished in
Rhode Island in January, 1852, and imprisonment for life substituted for
the penalty of what had been known as capital crimes. In December,
1872, death by hanging was declared to be the penalty for murder com-
mitted while in prison by a person under life-sentence.
Discharged prisoners.
A society for the aid of discharged i>risoners was organized in Prov-
idence, in JVIarch, 1872. Its othcers are a president, vice-president,
secretary, and treasurer, and an executive committee, composed of one
person from each of the boards w^hich have been mentioned. The
society, having had but a brief existence and a small membership as
yet, has not been able to accomplish much more than a preparatory
work. But few applications have been made for aid, as the state prison
authorities have an arrangement with the contractors at the prison to
furnish employment in their outside shops to such discharged convicts
as have proved themselves good workmeu, and have earned a certificate
of good behavior. As the.means of this society increase, it is expected
that more complete study of the subject of prison discipline Avill be
entered upon, with a view to ascertain the best methods for working-
out the desirable result of the reformation of the criminal. The
society h.ns the sympathy of the best members of our community, and
a future of prosperity and usefulness is confidently anticipated.
Main features of Rhode Island prison system.
The main features of the Rhode Island system of prison discipline
are: 1. The authority given to the several boards of trustees and in-
spectors to direct and control the management of the several institutions
without interference from any quarter, to appoint the officers, to manage
the finances, to arrange for the labor and instruction of the inmates,
and, in some instances, to discharge the prisoners. 2. The entirely
gratuitous services of such boards of direction. 3. The freedom from
political bias in making the appointments. 4. The existence of a board
of female visitors. 5. The abolition of the death penalty, except in
cases of murder committed in prison by a prisoner under life-sentence.
6. A system of commutation. 7. A partial system of classification of
i^risoners.
21. South Carolina.
By General J. C. Stolbrand, suj)criniendent of the state peniteniiar^
Liberally as the people of the State have heretofore . contributed to
"build up and maintain charitable institutions for lunatics, orphans,
deaf-mutes, and other classes of unfortunates, there were in the State,
previous to the termination of the late war, no penal or reformatory
institutions of any kind.
The district county jails were then, even more than now, of the rudest
and most primitive kind.
448 NATIONAL PEISON KEFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
This state of tbiugs was probably owiug to the severity of the then
crimiual laws, (now much Diodified and milder,) under which were in-
Hicted cai>ital punishment upon such criminals as now, in almost every
State of the Union, receive sentences of from two to ten years imprison-
ment with hard labor.
In 1866 Governor James L. Orr, with admirable tact and foresight,
succeeded in securing from an unwilling legislature a small sum of
money for the purpose of constructing, temporarily, a place of safety
for such offenders as might prove, under the new order o^* things (eman-
cipation having become of effect) too dangerous to the community, and
upon whom the death penalty, according to then existing statute, seemed
too severe.
From this action on the part of Governor Orr originated what is now
known as the South Carolina penitentiary.
In 1868, after the reconstructed government of the State had come into
operation, under the new constitution, it v.as decreed by the legislature
that the penitentiary at Columbia should be the general penitentiary
and prison of the State, for the reformation as well as the punishment
of all offenders. Ground was broken for the institution, November 17,
1866, but no convicts were received until April IS, 1867. Since then
the institution, for want of means, has advanced but slowly in the way of
erecting and completing the necessary buildings.
Since the last-named date no hired labor (except foremen in the different
branches) has been employed. The quarrying and cutting of the granite
for the buildings, the weaving of the cloth and making it up into gar-
ments, the cooking, washing, shoemaking, &c., have all been done by
the convicts.
The plan of the prison provides for the erection of live hundred cells,
divided into two wings, which are to be united by a central building
for the administration. There are now three hundred and forty cells
mostly ready for occupancy under a temporary roof, which serves for
shelter until the inclosing wall shall have been co.mjileted and percaa-
nently roofed.
A school has been, organized, under a competent teacher, which
promises good results. Eeligious service is regularly maintained on
the Sabbath, and a Sunday-school has been in operation for about two
years.
The first official report of the institution was dated January 1, 1868,
and states that the inmates then numbered 187 ; in 1869 the number
was 222 ; in 1870, 317; in 1871, 309 ; and in 1872, 300. The number of
whites has not varied materially' from 10 per cent, of the whole number.
Considering that this is the oidy penal institution in a State of 720,000
inhabitants, it is believed that the number of criminals compares not
unfavorably with other States.
Thelt is the besetting sin in this commonwealth. More than live-sev-
enths of our (;iiminals have becoine such under that designation. Aboufc
one-seventh have committed offenses against the person by violence,
wliih; th« remaining seventh comprises offenders of all grades and de-
sciiptions.
it is to be liope<l that a ])ro])osition now beforeour legislature to estab-
lish a r<'r(»rm school for hoys may result in theconsummation of so need-
ful and desirable an end.
Any one giving even a casual glance at our social condition and de-
velopment will be struck with the illiteracy and ignorance of a great
majority of the peoi)Ie. That this is owing to our former system of
slavery is not doubted. The only remedy lies in the gradual^exteusioM
PRISONS OF TENNJiSSEE AND TEXAS. 449
of the common school, whose widening and beneficent influence is, even
at this early period, felt in ever3^ part of the iState.
22. Tenkessee.
By W. M. Wnglit, M. D., superiHieiident of prisons.
In the absence of my annual report, made last week to the legislature,
but not yet published, I beg leave to submit the following brief state-
ment of facts with regard to the state prison of Tennessee : There
are now in the penitentiary at Nashville, and its branches throughout
the State, 744 convicts. Of this number about 400 are colored ; 35 are
females, only one of whom is white. In December, 1871, the legis-
lature leased the state-prison, including its branches, to a private com-
l)any, at $33,000 a year for five years, the lessees paying all expenses.
By a stipulation in the contract the State retained entire control of the
treatment of the convicts. For four years preceding the lease, the
l)risons cost the State $114,000 annually. The legislature, to get rid of
this heavy burden, and at the same time do exact justice to the crim-
inals, according to the enlightened philanthropy of the age, entered into
the above-mentioned contract, with the necessary restraining provisions
to guard the moral interests of the convicts. The legislature believed,
and their wisdom has beenjustified, that they could lease out the prisons
and at the same time introduce and carry into effective operation all the
reformatory measures consistent with the good government of penal
institutions and the well-being of society. The measures adopted for
the reformation of criminals are the commutation or good-time law, the
regular employment of chaplains, who have service every Sunday morn-
ing and Sabbath-school in the evening, the distribution of good books,
periodicals, &c. I can see very little difference in the means used in
Tennessee for the reformation of criminals and those employed in other
States whose reports have been read to this body. I only consented to
make these few remarks that the congress might know that Tennessee
is not an idle or indifferent spectator of the grand reformatory revolu-
tion in the management of criminals, which is engaging the best minds
of our country and enlisting the active sympathy and intelligent study
of every civilized country throughout the world. The i>lan adopted iu
Tennessee works well and is satisfactorv.
23. Texas.
By Rev. Benjamin A. Eogrrs, commhsioner to the Into-nationaJ renitntiary Congress of
London, and president of the prison reform association of Texas.
The State of Texas has an area of 338,000 square miles, with 136 or-
ganized counties, and a population of neaiij^ 900,000 souls ; of which a
fraction over two-fifths are colored. In territorial extent it is the largest
State in the American Union, having also the greatest diversity of cli-
mate, soil, aud productions. With its vast sea-coast, its navigable riv-
ers, its rapidly extending railroads, and its swelling tide of immigration,
it may perhaps be allowed to count itself among the most prosperous
of States ; and it is utterly without excuse if it fails to enter, with vig-
orous step, into every reform that tends to the safety, progress, and
H. Ex. 185 29
450 NATIONAL PKLSON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
happiness of a people. But notwithstanding the flood of light that the
last fifty years have thrown upon the snbject under consideration in
this report, Texas is to day wholly without public reformatory institu-
tions (usually so denominated) of any kind. Its barrenness in this re-
gard is not without, at least, one advantage: its field of operations is
an open one; where nothing exists, there are no errors to be corrected,
no strong prejudices to overcome; and much may be hoped from time
and eftbrt.
The State has but one penitentiary, or state prison, which is located
at Huntsville. Nearly every county has its jail. As to the number,
sex, and ages of prisoners, whether in the penitentiary or jails, I cannot
speak with any degree of accuracy, as I have been unable to obtain
answers to my questions addressed to the penitentiary contractors,
though strongly seconded in my eflbrts by the governor of the State.
I suppose the penitentiary convicts number from GOO to 800 persons,
and the inmates of the jails as many more.
There is no central authority charged with the administration of the
prison system of the State. Each county has charge of its own jail
afl'airs. The consequence is, that the jails are mere filthy pens, or hor-
rible dungeons, where, in many instances, all sorts of criminals, all
ages, and both sexes, are herded together, like cattle; often with little
air, little light, and no cleanliness. The county courts are responsible.
The penitentiary being in the hands of contractors, the administration
of its discipline is very largely in their hands also. The discipline is
simply deterrent; or at least it is so intended. The agencies adopted
are labor, the dungeon, and the stocks — the last too liberally used.
There is no provision of law for instruction of the convicts, except in
labor; and what is not provided for by law is not likely to be furnished
by contractors, whose business it is to make all that can be made out
of the convicts' labor, regardless of higher ends.
In the penitentiary itself, various kinds of manufacturing are carried
on. . But much convict work is performed outside, as the contractors
are allowed to put the convicts upon the railroads of the State, where
they work under an armed guard. This, while it sometimes ameliorates
the immediate condition of the prisoner, is really a pernicious system.
It encourages attempts to escape — sou)etimes resulting in success, and
thus cheating society of its security; sometimes issuing in capture and
X)unishnient, thus subjecting ])risoneis to unnecessary suffering; and
sometimes leading to the shooting down of the convict, a waste of life
without necessity, and so without right.
I.aiceny, buiglaiy, aiHl injuries to the person, particularly the first,
are the most common forms of crime; ignorance, intemperance, idleness,
IK)vert.\, and want ot early tiaining, are the predominant causes.
Two years ago (Jo\crnor Davis, in his annual message to the legisla-
ture, urged a thoiou^ih retoiin ot the prison systeui ot the State, but no
legislative action was obtained. Within a tew weeks past great public
int(Mey;t has been aroused l>\ a thorough exposiu'e, in a public lecture,
delivered at the State capital, of the enormities of the existing systems,
both jail and penitentiary, Irom whi(;h has resulted the formation of a
"])rison reform association of the State of Texas," one of the avowed
and leading i)urposes of wliic^h is ''promoting su(^h legislation as shall
reform the j)resent prison syHtem and disci[)line of the State."
'J'he meml)eishi[> ol t his association emiuaces soiiieof tlu^ best and most
intiuential men ot all jtarties in the. State, among whom are its highest
oflieials, t he ^o\ (■rn(;r, I he secretary of state, the State treasuier, the
attorney-;^(;neral, the comptroller, and the judj;es ol' the su[)rcme court;
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF VERMONT. 451
also, some of the most iuflnential members of the bar from different
parts of the State. The newspapers of the State, without regard to
party, are also earnest in the advocacy of reform, and much of hope
lies in the future of this association.
This association has already ])repared and proposed to the legislature
the passage of three separate bills. One of these bills provides for a
comj)lete reorganization of the county jail system of the State ; another
provides for the erection of a new penitentiary, to be conducted sub-
stantially on the Orofton system ; and the third proposes for each county
in the State a ''county farm," with poor-house, house of correction, and
reform school. All the above bills were referred to committees. Fa-
vorable action is hoped upon some of them at once, and upon all in time.
The urgent need of reform in all these points may be inferred from the
statements made in this report, and also from those contained in the
following extracts from a communication made to the legislature by the
writer of the report, and which is hereto appended as a part of his state-
ment :
It is believed that no otlier civilized Slate upon the earth has so tei'rible a jail sys-
tem as ours. The hniidied jails in this State are to-day a hundred deus of sutlering,
crime, and infamy ; a huudred schools of poverty, vice, and shame ; a hundred plague-
spots upon the body politic, and a hundred sources of disgrace to morality, to religion,
to the State. And it were well if this^vere all. But, with nearly a thousand peniten-
tiary convicts, we have to-day accommodations for only two huudred and eighty-eight;
and, again, with thousands of suffering paupers there is not a poor-bouse iu the State.
Again, with thousands of children, orphans, and outcasts falling into crime, we have
not one single house of correction or reform.
Why is this ? It is a well-established law of political economy that humanity itself
is of the greatest value to a State, and that a careful regard for it is a State's first duty.
What is being done for humanity here? Where does Texas look for her future pros-
perity ? Is she willing to risk the experiment of letting poverty and suffering, the
very parents of degradation, go on unnoticed and unchecked?
All these 'things are in your hands, gentlemen, and may not the good citizens of the
State hope that, among the four hundred bills before you, the two or three looking to
the suppression of suffering and crime may be deemed worthy of notice?
24. Vermont.
By Bev. FraiiMitt Butler, chaplain of the state prison.
Vermont is an inland, agricultural State, containing an area of only
9,0504 square miles, or 5,795,900 acres, and having a population of
330,551 in 1870. The Green Mountains extend through the entire length
of the State, dividing it from north to south into two nearly equal por-
tions. It has only two incorporated cities, and but few towns in which
the number of inhabitants exceeds tive thousand or even two thousand
souls. It is eminently a rural commonwealth, in which there are no
great centers of iutluence of a social, moral, or political nature.
Vermont has three colleges and an academical and common-school
system, of which, although perfection is not claimed, her sons are never
ashamed to make mention.
In Christian churches she abounds, and in her men and women
trained up in her mountain homes, she, if any State, may glory. But,
despite these advantages, here, as elsewhere, vice and crime exi.st ; and
the demand for earnest attention to the prevention and cure of the same
is most imperative and urgent upon Christian patriots and philanthro-
pists.
In attention to this latter pyint, Vermont has not niujh whereof to
452 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
boast ; and, indeed, it may as well be plainly confessed that, herein,
she is considerably in the rear of some of her younger sistervS.
The penal and reformatory institutions of the State are : I. The state
prison ; II. The county jails ; III. The State reform school. To these
may be added, as institutions bearing directly upon the prevention of
crime: IV. The home for destitute children, at Burlington V. Other
preventive institutions.
I. — The state prison.
This is situated at Windsor, and is the first and onlj'^ one ever built
in Vermont. It was completed and occupied in 1809, eighteen years
after the admission of the State to the Union. Previous to that time,
such temporary expedients for the public safety and the punishment of
offenders were adopted as were deemed practicable for the unsettled
civil and political condition of the people. The building, 81 feet long
by 36 feet wide, three stories high, was constructed of granite, the out-
side walls being 3 feet thick, and the partitions of apartments into which
it was divided being 18 inches in thickness. The rooms were made for
the occupation of several convicts at a time ; and they were lighted, in
the first and second stories, only by a small aperture in each for the ad-
mission of light and air. This building was considered large enough
for 170 inmates. Adjoining it, a building 54 by 24 feet, and four stories
high, of stone and brick, was erected for \ the use of the keepers and
guards. Walls of hammered stone and brick, 20 feet high and 4 feet
thick at the base, inclosing a yard 16 by 12 rods square, were also
raised. Within the yard was a workshop, 100 by 24 feet, and three
stories high.
In 1832 a new cell building was constructed, containing 136 cells,
each designed for one prisoner. It has, however,been since re-arranged,
and the cells so enlarged as to reduce the number to 104. This building
is appropriated to the men, while the u}»per ])art of the old structure is
used for the confinement of women.
From 1800 to 1872, 2,101 persons have been committed to this prison,
averaging a little more than 33 per year, the commitments of 1809 be-
ing 24, and those of 1872 being 32, and the population of the State be-
ing respectively 217,895 and 330,551. The highest average term of
seutences, less than life, during this period is six and two-third years,
in 1809, and the lowest is two years, in 1867, while the general average
is a little over three years. Nineteen have been sentenced for life. The
X)ardons number 724, the greatest number having been in 1821, Avhen
it ecpialed the number of (jouimitments, viz, 27. The least number was
/el o, for neither in 1809 nor in 1842 were any pardons granted. The
escajies, in the sixty thrive years, amount to 26, being less than one in
two yrars. The death ration the whole number has been a little more
than onc-lhird of one per cent.; on the average number about one
and one third jjcr cent.
Tiie ])racli(;(; of industrial labor has always been regarded as of pri-
jnary iinportanc<!, as well to the interests of the inmates themselves as
to those of the State. Various kinds of hibor have been i)nrsued, both
on contra(;t and under the management of the ol'licers. At i)resent the
work is exclnsivcly ladies' gaiters, on contract, at 70 cents per day,
which yielded to the State, in J872, an e\<;ess of income above expend-
itures, amounting to !t<3,651.;>I, and tlien^ is a fair jnospect that the ex-
cess will <'xceed that amount tor some time to (;om<\
The «li>5cipline is in the hands of the^vvarden, wlio administers it with
EEFOEM SCHOOL OF VERMONT. 453
mingled kiiultiess, firrauess, and justice. Solitary confinement in a
darkened cell generally suffices for correction, although the block and
chaiu are in rare cases found necessary. As an inducement to good
behavior, a commutation law has been enacted by the legislature, by
which an abatement from the sentence for good conduct may be made,
by the governor, on recommendation of the superintendent. This law
has had a most benign effect upon the inmates.
Secnlar instruction to the inmates is not required by hiw. More or
less, however, according to the circumstances, is given in some form,
by the chaplain or other ofticers. A library of nearly 500 volumes is
]>rovided, and an annual appropriation is made for its maintenance
and increase. To this, all who can read have access.
Keligious instruction is provided for in the chaplaincy, the duties of
which are those usually appertaining to the office of the minister of the
gospel in preaching the word, visiting the sick, instructing, counseling,
encouraging, and helping, with the truths of religion, the erring and
fallen, to self-respect and self-conquest. He holds regular religious
services every Sabbath, and performs such other labors as the varying
circumstances require. Music being regarded an important aid to
reformation, its use in worship and its practice for that end are en-
couraged in all who have any aptitude for it.
No provision is made, either by the State or by organized private
benevolence, for aiding convicts to employment and usefulness on their
discharge. The superintendent, in accordance with established custom,
l)rovides a decent suit of clothes for them, and gives them a small sum
of money to help them to leave the place, but nothing more is usually
done in the name of the State. Individuals, in a quiet way, often help
them to employment, or afford other aid.
II. — The coiinty jails.
There are fourteen counties in Vermont, with a jail in each. They
generally consist of one or two large rooms and a few cells, designed for
transient safe-keeping of persons arrested, and for the punishment of
those convicted of minor ottenses, and sentenced to a few days oi' a few
months of imprisonment.
In some of the jails religious meetings on the Sabbath are regularly
held by Young Men's Christian Associations or other organizations, but
this is by no means the case in all.
Some eftbrt has been made to induce the legislature to make careful
inquest into the condition and administration of the jail system, or
rather want of system ; but, as yet, no practical results have appeared.
They are still mere tarrying places for the guilty or the innocent, as the
case may be, in which a brief confinement often proves, through asso-
ciation with hardened criminals, the introduction to life-long crime.
Governors have called attention to the subject, editors have discussed
it, and intelligent citizens have expressed their opinions ; but no steps
have yet been taken toward improvement.
• III. — The State reform school.
In 1865 an act was passed, establishing a State reform school. It
was organized on the family system, but has been changed to the con-
gregate. None are admitted who have passed the age of sixteen. Both
sexes were at first received ; but that plan was not found to work well.
454 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
and at present only boys are receiv^ed. Originally the law allowed sen-
tences ranging from six months to " during minority." Experience dem-
onstrated the inexpediency of this provision, and now the latter is. the
only sentence; but the authorities have power to discharge conditionally
whenever, in their judgment, it may be wise to do so. It is essentially
a preventive institution, being designed rather for vicious and neglected
children than for those actually criminal. Although, from the shortness
of the time during which it has been in operation, large results have not
yet appeared, enough has been accomplished to justify the outlay of
labor and money expended, and to give promise of a rich harvest in the
coming years.
IV. — The Jiomefor destitute children.
The liome for destitute children, at Burlington, was founded in I860,
mainly through the eftorts of Miss Lucia T. Wheeler, daughter of the
late President Wheeler, of the Vermont University. During the first
six months twelve children were received. It was opened in a private
house ; but as the number of applicants soon exceeded the means of
accommodation the marine hosi)ital building was purchased, in 1866,
and devoted to the uses of the institution. A permanent fund of $50,000
for the home is nearly completed. Originally the institution was de-
signed chiefly for destitute children of Burlington, but it is now open
to those of all parts of the State. It has been in successful operation
for seven years, under the efficient management of an association of
benevolent ladies. During this period, it has received 170 children ; of
whom 79 have been provided with homes in private tiimdies, chiefly in
this State. Some of them have been legally adopted, and others bound
out until eighteen years of age. •
The working force of the " Home" is composed of a matron, a teacher,
a seamstress, and a cook. The school is regarded as equal to any public
school of like grade. During the year 1872, twenty-eight have been
received ; nineteen have been provided with homes ; and several, having
reached their majority, have been discharged. The present number in
the home is thirty -five. The value of this institution, as a preventive
of evil and an agent for good, can scarcely be computed, and its friends
may well rejoice in the success of their noble work.
V. — Other preventive institutions.
There are one or two other institutions or schools in the State for the
young, simihir in nature and ol»ject to the honu' at JUirlington, originated
and snstained by Jioman Catholics; but, having no delinite information
concerning them, I am unable to do more than state the mere fact of
their existence.
Concbision.
Such is an iinpcrfcct skctc^h of the penal and I'cdbnnatory institutions
in tiiis State. Tiie facts are submitted in the belief that' if, in some
things, Vermont falls in tin; rear of some; States in the great en teri)rise
of triH; ))ris<,'n icform, it is not by reason of the hwk either of eyes to
perc«;ive lier de(ieienci<'s, or of head to tind the renu'dy, oi' of heart to
press the, aj)plieation. Vermont may be in the reai', but she is not
asleep.
eeform school of wisconsin. 455
25. Wisconsin.
Bji Samuel D. Hastings, .teoelary utate hoard of charities and reform.
The state of Wisconsin contains a poi)nlation, according; to the United
States census of 1870, of 1,051,970, of which number 090,171 were native
and 301,199 foreign -born.
The State is divided into fifty-eight counties, forty-nine of which have
jails, in wliich persons awaiting trial charged with crime and those con-
victed of minor offenses are confined.
In most of the counties the jails are small and insecure, deficient in
ventilation, with no facilities for bathing, with no arrangements for a
j>roper classification of their inmates by which the young lad, confined
for some petty misdemeanor — his first offense — can be separated from
the old and hardened offender, and are so managed that the prisoners
arc compelled to pass their time with no employment other than to cor-
rupt each other and to devise plans for future depredations upon society,
and with nothing done with a view^ to the reformation or the intellectual
or moral improvement of the prisoners. Within the past few, yeaxs a
few good buildings have been erected, free from some of the defects al-
luded to above. The buildings have been made comparatively secure;
good ventilation has been attained ; in one or two cases bathing facili-
ties have been provided, and better arrangements for classification have
been made ; but, after all, glaring defects still remain.
The aggregate number confined in the forty-nine jails of the State
during the year 1870 was 1,502 ; the aggregate number in 1871 was
],45G; and the number in the jails on the 1st day of August, 1872, 166.
The time of confinement varies from a single day to a year or more.
Of the number in the jails on the 1st day of August, 1872, 60 were
insane, confined there for the lack of* a better and more appropriate
place in which to put them. A second state hospital for the insane is
now nearly completed, and, when opened, the insane will all be removed
from the jails.
The most important reformatory institution in the State is the Indus-
trial School for Boys. The following interesting account of this insti-
tution has been kindly prepared by Mr. A. D. Hendrickson, the super-
intendent :
This institution was opened at Wankeslia in July, 1860. In his opening address Mr.
Cogswell appropriately said : " Wisconsin inaugurates to-day the noblest of her insti-
tutions— penal, reformatory, educational, or charitable." This institution was first
known as the house of refuge, but the legislature changed its name to reform school,
aud still later, in 1871, to Wisconsin industrial school for boys. Girls were originally
admitted. Recently an act has been passed to exclude them.
The number of boys, from the commencement to January 1, 1873, covering a period
of twelve aud oue-half years, is 832 ; total number of inmates of both sexes, 905.
The control of the institution is in the hands of a board of five managers, appointed
by the governor for a term of three years. The board elects the superintendent and
matron, who hold their office at its pleasure. The superintendent names all the assist-
ants, subject to the approval of the board.
Boys are committed to the school between the ages of eight aud sixteen years, as
vagrants, or on conviction of any criminal offense, or for incorrigible or vicious con-
duct.
The managers have power to return any inmate to the care of his parents or guard-
ian, or provide a home elsewhere, whenever in their judgment such disposition would
be most for his future benefit ; but unless he has reached his majority, his discharge
is conditional, and, in case of misconduct, he is returned to the institution. Such re-
turns will not average more than 5 to 7 per cent. This watchfal supervision of the
boys after leaving the school is of very great value. It is a kind of parental oversight,
which operates as a constant resti'aint.
The average stay in the school is between two and three years. While a few are
456 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF ]873.
dischargeil within three or four months, some remain six or seven years. The latter
are generally those who have no homes outside, and, as a rule, they are the best fruits
of our work.
The total current expenses of the school for 1872 were $36,588.70. Of this sum the
earnings of the boys amounted to $6,351.00, two-thirds of which were the jjroduct of
a farm of 233 acres, and one-third was the result of work iu the shops.
This institution was first organized on the congregate system, and so continued until
the main building was destroyed by fire, January 10, 1866. The iustitutiou was rebuilt
on the family plan the same year. We have now a main building, containing school-
room and residence of superintendent, and six family buildings. Each of these latter
is designed to accommodate thirty-six boys, but want of room sometimes compels us
to crowd forty or more into them. There are two stories above the basement. Each is
provided with a boys' sitting-room, bath-room, and storage-room on basement floor ;
dining-room, library-room, and officers' sitting-room on first floor ; and dormitory,
dressing-room, and oflicers' lodging-room on second floor.
We have now been working under the family system for more than five years, and
there is no wish to return to the congregate plan. Then the boys were locked in sepa-
rate cells at night, confined within close yards by day, and strictly guarded at all times.
Now each family lodges in a common dormitoiy, which is well lighted and well ven-
tilated, with no more bolts and bars than are needed in common dwellings. Our
grounds and surroundings are open, pleasant, and homelike.
From eight to nine hours of each day are devoted to active employment, about equally
divided between labor and school. Our employments are farming, gardening, shoe-mak-
ing, tailoring, broom-making, willow-ware making, cane-seating, knitting, and domestic
work. A principal and four assistant teachers are employed in giving scholastic instruc-
tion to the boys. The common English branches are taught ; also history, physiology,
and occasionally other branches of natural science and mathematics. Religious instruc-
tion is regularly imparted, but without denominational bias. No regular chaplain is
provided. Ministers of ditterent denominations officiate. In the absence of such, the
superintendent conducts the religious services. Besides public worship on the Sab-
bath, a Sunday-school is regularly maintained. All the inmates assemble daily in the
chapel for public prayer. A library of 800 to 900 volumes, and a generous supply of
magazines and papers, adapted to the ages and capacities of our boys, constitute the
reading matter i)rovided.
Vocal music is cultivated with very satisfactory results. For the past four years we
have maintained a brass band, which has been a source of much gratification, and is
found useful as well as ornamental.
The most serious difficulty which this reform work has to contend with is the lack
of the whole-sonled earnest men and women to take the position of house-fathers and
mothers, to educate and train up these young wayward sous of the west in the way
in which they should go.
The State is doing its part iu this noble work, but there is a part that the State,
unaided by individual effort, cannot do. Here is work for the Christian and the
I)hilanthropist. The missionary may here find a field of labor without crossing the
seas ; a field of labor that will prove remunerative to both the teacher and the taught.
Here he can snatch a fellow-being from the brink of crime and infamy, and send him
out into .society a good man, an honest citizen. He may save a soul from death, and
hide a multitude of sins.
The following? repoit on the state prison has been kindly fnrnished
bj' the IJon. George F. Wheeler, state prison commissioner:
The WisoouKin State prison, at Waupiin, was opened to receive convicts in the spring
of 18.52. The whob; number iniprisoiujd hert^ since the opening bas been 1,718. The
averager numlxT at present is sometliing less tliau 200.
The ri(iniinistiiition of tlie, prison is in the hands of a commissioner, Avho is elected
by jiopuiar sulliage ])ieniiialiy. He appoints all subordinate officers, and has full con-
tJ'ol oi' tiie liiisincsN and discipline of tlie institution.
Tli<! confluct oftjic jirisoncrs is, witli few exceptions, good. It is the aim to maintain
the discipline liy kind mc.'iHiufs ratlier tli;ni by ii.irslinisss, and a re-sort to the severest
I)unihlimcnt (coiilincnM-nt in a dari< ccli) is rarely necessary. A strong incentive to
good conduct is the Hliort(!nii;g of the term of service as a reward to good behavior.
The governor has the power of jiardon, but in order to its exercise he must have a
cortificalc, fiom the prlHon commissioner staling that the conduct of the a[»i>licant has
been good dm ing ((KitirKMinnt ; and, iu <!ase the coiiviiit has be(Mi stMitenced for mur-
der, hii iiiiiHt also havr- the rccoriitiicndaf ion of" ( lie jiidgii who tried the case.
A Hciir«>l is mainlaiiu'il by the ciiaplaiii of IIki ))riH(m, in which tVotu oiu'-fourth to
ono-tliird of the fuuivicts receive iiiMtruction on Sunday afternoon in the commou-
Hchool l)rauch<H. Although a large pr<»portion of the jirisoners are recorded on entrance
aH able in read and write, yet tlieir knowledge of even these rudimentary branches is
very slight, and the school has wonderfully inii)roved very many of them. In addi-
PENAL INSTITUTIONS OF WISCONSIN. 457
tion to tlio school, there is, as a means of iastructioa aud amusement, a library of about
five huudred volumes.
The convicts are employed, under the management of the administration, in several
kinds of mechanical work. They cut stone, manufacture cabinet-work, aud make
chairs. For this last work, which is carried on to even a large extent, the prisoy has very
complete shops and machinery. Shoemaking and tailoring are also carried on in the
prison. Besides this, the prisoners do all the necessary work of the establishment.
The sanitary state of the prison is good. Notwithstanding the fact that many of the
convicts are received in a more or less diseased condition, incident to a vicious life, or
are debilitated by close confinement in jails, the average health is as good as it is
outside.
The most common cause of crime is drunkenness, which often, perhaps usually, ac-
companies idleness.
The State employs a Protestant chaplain, who gives his time entirely to the institu-
tion ; and there is also a Catholic chaplain, who makes monthly visits for the benefit
of the adherents of that faith. In addition to the duties proper of the regular chap-
lain, he has the direction of the school aud is in charge of the library. In his efforts
for the moral and spiritual improvement of the prisoners, the chaplain has the assist-
ance of volunteer laborers from amoug the philanthropic citizens of the village.
In addition to the state prison, jails, and the industrial school for
boys, we have an institution in the city of Milwaukee, known as the
Milwaukee house of correction. This prison is for the reception aud
treatment of vagrants, disorderly persons, ahle-bodied paupers, and
persons convicted of minor offenses. The inmates of the house of* cor-
rection are kept at work in association by. day under the rule of silence,
and sleep in separate cells at night. The whole number imprisoned in
1872 was 647, and the average number during the year was 68. The
number discharged was 579, of whom 514 were men and 65 women ;
177 were natives, and 402 foreigners.
With a population of over .twelve hundred thousand, the average
unmber of inmates in the State prison was during the past year
but 200
The number of persons confined in the jails of the State on the
1st day of August last, deducting the insane, (which is probably
a fair average for the year,) was 106
The average number in the Milwaukee house of correction during
the year was - 68
Making a total of 374
Is there any State in the Union that can show a better record in ^to-
portion to its population 1
The following extract from the recent message of Governor Wash-
burn to the legislature will be interesting in this connection :
There is no subject more worthy of the careful attention of the legislature than
that of our ijenal institutions. The best of men have been divided in opinion as to the
best methods of treatment for the vicious and criminal portions of society. For some
years past more attention has been given to the reformation of our criminal classes
than formerly, and punishments have assumed a less vindictive character.
In July next twenty years will have elapsed since the death penalty was abolished
in this State. The experiment met with strong opposition from a large portion of
the people of the State who predicted that a large increase of crime would result
from the change. That prediction happily has not been verified, and the facts which
I am about to state conclusively show that no State in this Union can boast greater
exemption from crime than Wisconsin. With a population of 1,200,000, representing
almost every nationality, and two-fifths of foreign birth, statistics show that crime,
instead of increasing with the growth of the State, has actually diminishetl. This is
in a great degree due to a high-toned public sentiment, which causes the violated
laws to be promptly vindicated.
Since the abolition of the death penalty, there have been tried, convicted, and
sentenced to the penitentiary for life, 71 person in all. Of that number, 36 now
remain, the rest having either died, been pardoned, or discharged by proper authority.
There can be no douijt that the change in the law has rendered punishment much
more certain, and I but express the opinion of those who have most carefully consid-
458 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
ered the question, as well as my own, when I state that but for that change in the law,
at least one-half of those heretofore convicted would have escaped all punishment, so
difficult is conviction when the penalty is death. In the five years that elapsed from
1848 to 1853, I have no knowledge of more than one person having suffered the
extreme penalty of the law. This was not because of lack of offenses, but of the
extreme difficulty of conviction.
In the year 1854, the number of convictions for the crime of murder was three ; in
1855, three ; in 1856, three ; in 1857, three; in 1858, five ; in 1859, none; in 1860, two ;
in 1861, none; in 186'2, two; in 1863, eight; in 1864, none; in 1865, five; in 1866, one;
in 1867, four ; in 1868, five ; in 1869, two ; in 1870, four ; in 1871, three ; in 1872, one.
I have taken some pains to learn what the conduct has been, since discharged from
prison, of those convicted of the crime of murder who have been pardoned, and I have
failed to learn of any instance where the party had rendered himself amenable to the
law. On the contrary, so far as known, they have proved honest and peaceable citi-
zens— extremely careful and circumspect in their intercourse with their fellow-men.
TERRITORY OF UTAH.
By A. P. Eockivood, ivarden of the Territorial penitentiary.
For about sixteen years my attention bas been officially called to tbe
manner of executing the sentence of tbe court on convicts committed to
tbe Utab penitentiary. My experience bas been five years as inspector
and eleven years as warden.
Laws are supposed to be made to fit tbe circumstances under wbicb
tbey are to be administered ; tbe laws applicable under one set of cir-
cumstances may not be under anotber. In Utab we bave no intermediate
prison or bouse of correction created by tbe territorial statutes ; couse-
quently, tbe law endows tbe warden with large discretionary power.
Under its i^rovisions be is authorized, with tlie approval of tbe directors,
to hire out any or all of the convicts on any public or private works. As
■we bave no house of correction for juveniles, all persons convicted of
bigh crimes or misdemeanors are sent to the penitentiary. Under the
I^rovisious of the law, I exercised my discretion in tbe classification of
the convicts.
The first class consists of old offenders or desperadoes, who may be
generally considered past reclaiming. These, however, as well as all
otber.s, I endeavor to govern by kindness, and to create within them the
sentiment of hope, without which the heart faints. I cannot better
illustrate tbisi)oint than by relating a circumstance that occurred some
years since. Two of this class were arrested for horse-stealing, and, for
want of bail, were committed to the county jail to await trial. While
there they boasted, in presence and bearing of tbe keepers, of what tbey
would and w oubl not do when they were committed to tbe peniten-
tiary, all of which soon came to my ears. This enabled me to prepare
for them. In the early part of June they were delivered into my hands.
1 bade tliem make themselves comlbrtable and contented, and tbey
would b(; ]»roi)er]y cared for. Wiieu supper-time drew nigh, I asked
them ii' they were Ibnd of bread and milk. Tliey made answer that they
were very fond of it, but had not had the luxury ior several years, add-
ing that it would remind tlieni of their childhood home, when mother
used to serve it out. iSoon 1 went in with the coveted meal, and with it
a bowl of stiawbci lies. They fairly laughed for joy. Next morning
be<;rst(5ak, vegetables, bicad, and milk were served for breakfast, tbe
sight of whi(;h made their lieai'ts again leap for joy. Next came tbe
assignnu'iit of the labor which they liad sworn not to do; nevertheless
tbey receded from their vow, and (piietly commenced. When all was
suitably arranged, and I was al)out to willidraw, I cautioned the super-
intendent, in their iiearing, not to work these men too bard, as they luid
been shut up in the county jail fors(>veral wei^ks, and were not used to the
PENITENTIARY OF UTAH PREVENTIVE MEASURES. 459
scorching rays of the sun, and their liauds were tender and not recently
accustomed to the handling of rough tools, like ouf picks and shovels.
1 then stepped into my carriage and drove off. In the evening the
superintendent reported that the day had passed off quietly, and that
the work had progressed well. At the close of the day these convicts
inquired of the others if this was the way they were treated all the time.
They were answered in the affirmative, and assured that the warden
would be as kind to them as a father. The next day being Sunday, I went
in and inquired after the welfare of each convict. At length 1 came to
the two in question, and spoke a few kind words to them. They com-
menced sobbing, which was followed by a flood of tears, and a voluntary
confession of what they had said when in jail. They promised that I
should have no trouble with them. Kindness had melted and subdued
them. If men so haidened can be conquered by kindness, who shall be
des])aired of?
The second class consists of prisoners of mature age, who, under the
baneful influence of liquor or momentary passion or sudden temptation,
have, in an unguarded hour, committed some criminal act. Criminals
of this class are frequently reclaimed, and are sometimes hired out, as
those are who are immediately to be mentioned as belonging to the next
class.
The third class includes the youth, who are not hardened in crime, nor
have their hearts yet been seared so that they are not subjects of reform.
To this class my attention has been particularly directed, and, as author-
ized by law, I frequently hire them out to a parent, brother, or friend.
When application is made for a convict of this class, I must have
three guarantees before hiring him out. I must be convinced first that
the convict is safe from assault by persons who would seek revenge for
past offenses ; secondly, that the person ottering to hire him may be
safely intrusted with the execution of the sentence ; and, thirdly, that
the convict's word of honor can be confided in. If satisfied on all these
points, I lay the matter before the board of directors. If they approve,
the contract is entered into; if not, all remains in statu quo. One con-
dition of the contract is that the employer shall suitably feed, clothe,
guard, and meet all other charges that may be incurred in the execution
of the sentence, and pay to the warden the amount set forth in the
agreement. A second condition is that he shall see that the convict
abide under the rules of the institution, as far as they may be applica-
ble. A further condition is that the convict shall be returned on the
order of the warden, without the necessity of assigning any reason
therefor. All these stipulations and some others having been entered
into, the employer is appointed deputy warden, and files a bond with
security for the faithful performance of his duties in the execution of the
sentence on the convict committed to his custody. Under this mode of
procedure the convict is placed, so to speak, under the care of a father,
brother, or friend, besides remaining still under the watchful protection
of the warden, who has power to order him returned at pleasure.
Now for the practical working of this system. About four per cent,
have iiroved recreant to their trust ; ninety-six per cent, have been in a
measure reclaimed ; fully one-half have settled down to be good citizens;
and the balance have passed off" to parts to me unknown. S-ulfice it to
say that not one of this class has been committed to my custody for a
second offense.
Having said this much on the subject of discipline and reform, I now
proceed to the preventive measures employed in Utah. First, our license
law is nearly tantamount to prohibition, especially in small or thinly
460 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONCRESS OF 1873.
inhabited settlements. Secondly, the Territory is subdivided into abont
one hundred and seventy wards, or precincts, nearly all of whi(;h have
an organized female relief society, whose business it is to look after and
supply the needs of the poor and the children that aie not suitably
cared for. These societies are exclusively managed by the ladies ; all
aid rendered is by voluntary donation. The higher aim of the society
is to prevent childreu being brought up under demoralizing influences,
and to direct the juveniles in the paths of virtue. Parents and guard-
ians, not willing to accept the proffered aid, are free to take their own
course, so far as the society is concerned. Thirdly, by an act passed by
the legislative assembly in 1853, the probate court of each county is
authorized (on complaint that there are in the county minor children
who are not properly" brought up) to issue an order to a proper officer
requiring him to bring said child or children before the court, and sum-
mon the parents or guardian, as the case may be, to appear and show
cause, if any they have, why said children should not be bound out to
suitable t)ersons under the provisions of the statute.
Most of the citizens of Utah are partial to large families ; consequently
there is not much trouble in procuring suitable places for children in
the most respectable families, with little or no cost to the county.
The salutary effects of these preventive measures are visible in the
streets of our cities by the absence of prostitutes walking, mincing, and
tinkling as they go, designing to lead the unsuspecting youth from the
path of virtue. As yet no female convict has been committed to my
custody, nor to the custody of my predecessors in office.
v.— PEOCEEDIXGS AND DISCUSSIONS.
[Reported by Rev. William H. Tiffaay.]
The proceedings of the lii-st day consisted simply of what was done at
the opening session, which has been already reported in a former part
of these transactions.
SECOND DAY — MORNINCt SESSION.
Wednesday, January 22, 1873.
Q''he congress re-assembled at 10 a. m. in Kaine's Hall.
In the absence of the president, the Kev. Dr. Bellows, of New York,
one of the vice-presidents, called the meeting to order.
'Prayer was offered by the liev. Thomas K. Pessendeu, of Connecti-
jCUt.
Judge Walker, of INIichigan, chairman of the business committee,
mo\'ed that the congress hold two daily sessions, viz, from 10 to 3 in
the nioriiiiig, and Irom 7 to 0.30 in the evening. Carried.
The annual reportof the standing committee on ])rison discii)line was
read by Dr. Wines, in the absence of Z. It. Brockway, of Michigan,
chairman, di'taiued l)y sickness. (For the report see i)age 331.)
'Tlie H'poit of the standing connnittee on discharged ])risoners was
read by Mr. Allinson, of New Jersey, chairman. (For the report see
I)age 33().)
(lovernorSeymour, who h;id assumed the chair <luri 11 g the reading of Mr.
r.iofkway's jKiper, said he liopiMJ tliat the rei)oit, able and satislactory
as it was in most respects, would not go out witliout sf)me (pialilication.
He feared tluit it Ja voted restraint too strtnigly. There was a class of
oHeiiders, ciilled " rot;iry men," apiiearing olten before the courts and
DISCUSSION ON PRISON DISCIPLINE, &C. 461
in prison, who needed to be sharply dealt by ; but he was afraid
of poli(;e supervision. Virtue could not be made by coercion. He had
an abiding belief that there was good in every man, and that this should
be sought out, encouraged, and developed. The number of pardons
granted by him during his four years' administration as governor of
New York had been made matter of reproach. With him it was rather
an occasion of gratulation and pride. He believed that very many
reformations had been thus effected. He had witnessed many touching
instances of gratitude, and one which, though perfectly sincere, had an
air somewhat ludicrous. Pie had extended clemency to a poor fellow
who, in expressing his thanks for the favor, said : "Governor, 1 hope
to be able to do as much for you some time." Another consideration :
he thought there was too prevalent a desire to make our prisons not
only self-supporting but sources of revenue, and that the report gave
too much countenance to this feeling. He believed in making prisoners
work and earn money ; but he believed also in giving them ;a share in
their earnings, and a pretty large share too. Labor so performed would
be far more valuable to the prisoner, for it would be willing, cheerful,
and hearty ; and it would tend to beget a love for work and to form the
habit of industry. What he wanted was the reformation of the criminal,
and he believed" that this would be better effected by kindly care than
by excessive coercion and restraint. But he would not close without
saying that, despite these criticisms, he regarded the report as an excel-
lent one, and thought it contained many valuable suggestions.
Dr. Wines agreed, in the main, with what had fallen from the president,
but thought he had attached too strong a meaning to' some expressions in
the report. He was quite sure that there was no man in this congress who
felt more strongly for the ])risoner, or acted more wisely on his behalf, than
Mr. Brockway in the management of his prison at Detroit. As regarded
police supervision after discharge, it was not much known in this coun-
try, and doubtless there was a strong feeling against it ; but it was a
question worthy of being studied. It was discussed in the London
Congress. The continental delegates opposed it as harsh and injurious
as practised among them, but approved of it where, as in England, it
was of a friendly character and designed to shield and help the convict.
When so practised, they thought it wholesome and beneficial. It was,
however, applied in England only to "habitual criminals,'' whom Gov-
ernor Seymour had described as "revolvers," and in reference to Vv^hom
he had admitted that "restraint" might be salutary.
Mr. H. Thane Miller, of Ohio, heartily indorsed what the president had
said, and thought the congress would do the same. -The diamond senti-
ment of his address last night was, that criminals "needed a spirit to
guide, and a Saviour to atone." That w«,s true. The only hope for the
criminal was in a change of heart ; and therefore, officers having them in
charge should be men of God. More care should be had in the instruction
of convicts, in setting them good exami;)les, and in pointing them to the
Saviour and the Holy Spirit for salvation and sanctification. The read-
ing of the convicts was also important. 5EIe believed in the idea ex-
pressed in Mr. Brockway's report, that there should be a compulsory law
to have the children of the convict and all children sent to school.
As regarded the second report, read by Mr. Allinson, on discharged
prisoners, he believed that great good would be accomplished by
the practical application of its suggestions. Convicts must be helped
when they come out of prison, not only with good advice, but money or
its equivalent. They must be aided in getting work. More than fifty
discharged from the Ohio state prison last year had had employment
462 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
fnrnislied thein, to the equal benefit of tliemselves and the conimuDity.
He hoped that all wonld carry the spirit of that report to their homes.
Air. Albree, of Pennsylvania, had visited Mr. Brockway's prison, and
six)ke of it in terms of warm commendation. He thought terms of im-
prisonment should be made longer, so that there might be time for
reformation, and for the successive steps which that work required.
Prisoners needed sympathy and love, and these should be shown in
person, uot by proxy. He was a director in the Allegheny County
workhouse, of which Air. H. Cordier was warden. The institution was
started only a few years ago. It was conducted on reformatory princi-
ples, and promised great success.
Dr. Wright, of Tennessee, expressed warm approval of both reports,
and thought the congress would indorse them.
Colonel Burr, of Ohio, did not desire to occupy the time of the con-
gress. He only wished to say a word on one or two points. He had
toeeu in charge of a i)rison having an average of a thousand men, and
knew something of the matters discussed here. The idea had been
thrown out that officers looked down upon prisoners as a lower order of
beings. This might be so iu some cases, but it was different from his
own experience and practice. He forgot that they were prisoners, and
looked upon them as brothers. There' was but one thing that would
really and radically reform criminals, and that was the Christian religion,
the regenerating ])ower of the Holy Siiirit, and salvation through the
blood of Jesus. He thought that police supervision would uot do in this
country, nor had he much faith in the idea of indefinite sentences, as
suggested in both reports. The great difficulty with discharged prison-
ers was the idea of their having been convicts. If they tried to conceal
the fact, they were sure to be found out and crushed. Police supervis-
ion he thought would add to this load. Put some trust in the prisoner,
and thus beget in him the desire to lead a better life; this will inspire
hoi)e ami prompt effort to deserve your confidence.
t)r. Bellows, of New York, was sorry to see any conflict introduced
here. He was much struck with the independence of Mr. lirockway.
Independent men are nu^n of strength. They often combine opposite
traits, and are capable of high thought and great action. He regretted
also to see a conflict between theory and practice. This was illogical
and unnatural. All right pra(;tice is based on sound theory, aiul all
just theory is the child of correct practice. A war between theory aiuI
practice was therefore an internecine war. Let us {)ut heads and
hearts and hands together, and make a perfect man. Another thing
he was sorry to see, namely, a conflict between prison reformers and
society at hirge, as if scxnety was not in favor of true reform. So(;iety
was reformatory ; and the whole prison system did not begin to com-
pare in (conservative and reformatory i)ower with the great natural laws
of society its«^lf. Men were stayed up by public ()[)inioii, l>y a sense of
decency, l)y the desii'e to stand well in the (community, and the like.
lli'W Mr. Milligan, of Pennsylvania, was opposed to police su|)ervis-
ion of <li.sch;iig('d juisoners. What we wanted tor piisoners as well
as others, was the atonement of Christ and the spirit of love. He had
hel[>ed a great many discharged prisonei-s, spending hundreds of dolhirs
this way; and only one man, thus aidcil, had ever [)roved false to the
trust reposed in him.
The l^-v. ]\Ir. VVoodiiury, of lihode Ishmd, read a i)aper by Dr.
(Jlarke, of iMass;i<clinsclts, who was unable to he pies(Mit, on "The final
cans(! of ciiminiU legislati(Mi as aU'ecting modes of piuiisluuent." (For
this pa[)er see p. .'370.)
DISCUSSION ON INDEFINITE SENTENCES. 463
Dr. Wines, of New York, read a "Summary of the views and sug-
gestions contained in the. report for 187U of the Board of Public Char-
ities of Pennsylvania," sent by Mr. George W.Harrison, president of
the board. (For this paper see p. 307.)
Dr. Wines said thatone fact had struck him forcibly, viz, that all the four
papers read this morning — Mr. Prockway's, Mr. Allinson's, Dr. Clarke's,
and Mr. Harrison's — had contained a])proving references to the idea
that criminals should not be restored to liberty till they gave evidence
of being better fitted for citizenship than they were on entering the
prison; and a paper would be read this evening, communicated by Dr.
Despine, of Prance, which embodied the same sentiment. Dr. Despiue
went further, and expressed the o{)inion that when prisons became real
reformatories, as this was their avowed aim, the incorporation of the
principle of indefinite sentences in the penitentiary system would be an
absolute necessity. All must admit that this i)rinciple was justf the
only difficulty was in finding a right way to apply it. But he believed
the problem capable of solution, for he held that God never made a
truth into which he did not put a power which, sooner or later, would
cause it to prevail. When the reformation of criminals was sought
in dead earnest, difficulties would disappear, and our way would be made
plain.
General Miner, of Missouri, expressed his opposition to the principles
both of indefinite sentences and police supervision.
Mr. Hageman, of New Jersey, expressed concurrence in these views.
Mr. KichardVaux, of Pennsylvania, advocated the same side of both
these questions with the last two speakers. He had the greatest pos-
sible respect for Mr. Brockway. He was behind no man in admiration
of his ability and success as a prison officer. Possibly his views might
be applicable to the locality where he lived and worked. But what might
be true in Michigan would not be true in Pliiladel{)hia or New York.
Police supervision extended thei)rison beyond its walls. He would say,
with entire respect, that New York had, in its prison at Sing Sing, a gi-
gantic manufactory of crime. Criminals were there educated to go out and
rob with greater skill and success. In the city of New York the rogues
were stronger than the whole power exerted to keep them in subjection.
Hence there was failure in the courts, judges and juries often conniving
or winking at wrong. Mr. Brock way's plan would vastly increase the
police force in New York, requiring a cordon of policemen around each
block in the city. What was api)licable in England would not be per-
mitted in this country'. The prolongation of the prison, after the pris-
oner has gone forth t'vom its walls, would not be tolerated among us.
The most important suggestion was tiiat we hold out hope t^) the pris-
oner. Keforui should be the end in view; and hope should be held out
from the beginning,
Mr. Bradford, ot Connecticut, said that he took square issue with the
last speaker; he believed that we should have supervision of the dis-
charged prisoner, if it was of the right kind. None could object to the
continued supervision of a kind father after his son had left the i)aiernal
roof. This was the kiiul of supervision that discharged convicts needed.
Mr. Coates, of Pennsylvania, was against the idea of indefinite sen-
tences, and denied the right ot society to exercise supervision atter the
prisoner had served out his time.
The Rev. Mr. Fessenden, of Connecticut, read a report on the pre-
ventive, reformatory, and penal institutions in that State. (For this
report, see p. 379.)
Dr. Wines read a report on the prison question in California, which
464 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 187:5.
had been prepared and forwarded by the Rev. James Woodworth, sec-
retary of the prison commission of that State,- who was unable to attend
in person. (For this paper, see p. 375.)
Dr. Bellows, of New York, asked for information as to the training of
the girls mentioned in the report of Mr. Fessenden, whether the causes
of crime in their cases were inquired into, and whether the treatment
"was specially adapted to each case. He spoke in strong commendation
of Dr. Carpenter's essay on unconscious cerebration, and wished to as-
certain whether the treatment of the girls referred to was based upon
the truths contained in that book.
Mr. Fessenden explained that the points presented in the inquiry of
Dr. Bellows were made matters of examination, and the treatment was
controlled by the result. But they found that clean clothes, good water,
and i)leuty of soap made a wonderful change. One of the girls, after she
had shed her coat of hlth, came out as handsome as a "picture." A
police officer said to him of another of the girls, "If you can make any-
thing of that girl, you can reform any one." Yet she is a good girl.
Oar success is very cheering in this work. «
Mr. Janney, of Maryland, referring to statements made in the two
reports read, said he rejoiced that temperance was making some prog-
ress. The ftict that nine-tenths of the crime committed could be traced
to intemperance, showed that effort should be made to promulgate the
principles of temperance and to secure their general practical adoption.
The offspring of intemperate parents, when they tell into crime, were
more to be pitied than blamed.
Hon. Henry Barnard, of Connecticut, said that there was now organ-
izing, in his State, a farm-school, based on the will of Mr. Watkiuson,
the funds for the support of which amounted to about $100,000. Mr.
Watkiuson had also left a small sum to aid discharged prisoners. He
quite agreed with the president (Governor Seymour) that a portion of
the funds arising from the labor of the convicts should be set aside for
their use when discharged.
Mr. White, of Pennsylvania, said that they had established a work-
house, a few years ago, in Allegheny County, and that the earnings of
the convicts had exceeded their expectations. They made oil-barrels.
They gave three cents a barrel to the convicts, who made, on an average,
twenty-two barrels a day. A man, committed for two years for petty
offense, had earned $250 for himself.
Colonel Burr, of Ohio, said that in his State they were authorized by
the board of directors to place to the credit of each convict, as a reward
for good conduct, such sum as they thought ht, not exceeding 10 per
cent, of his earnings.
Mr. P. T. Miller, of Missouri, said that his experience as a prison
ofticcr had given him sonnf knowledge of this matter. It was no argu-
ment to say that a bad man, because he was bad, should make no more
money than a better man, because he was better. We should (cultivate
and encouiagc industrial skill as well as morality. We should change
C4>erccd into free labor. Money is mighty to move men even in a right
direction.
Jjctters were here received from a number of penal, reformatory, aiid
charital)le institutions of Baltimore, inviting the members of the con-
gress to visit such institutions (luring their stay in the city. The invi-
tations were. acce|)ted with thanks.
A recess was taken till 7 o'clock p. m.
MISS LINDA Gilbert's address. 465
EVENING SESSION.
The congress re-assembled at 7 p. m.
The minutes of the iirevious meeting- were read and approved.
The i)resident, with complimentary remarks, introduced ]\Iiss Linda
Gilbert, of Illinois, who gave an account of her extensive visitation of
prisons in different States, in which she communicated a great amount
of interesting statistical information. She said that 90 i)er cent, of all
the prisoners in the country were more or less intemperate. The num-
ber of county jails in all the States was 2,197, and the average
number of prisoners in each jail was about 8. The average number of
prisoners in all the prisons in the country did not fall much, if any, below
40,000. Seventy-seven per cent, of the inmates of our prisons never
learned a trade. Forty per cent, were illiterate. Thirty-eight per cent,
lived out of the family relation, and had no home influences. She said
that only parts of trades were usually learned in prisons ; hardly any-
where was a full trade imparted. Some thought that criminals could
not be reformed ; but Mary Magdalene had seven devils cast out of her.
There was much mechanical ingenuity shut up within prison walls.
She knew of one prisoner whose skill had brought thousands of dollars
into the treasury' of the State. Her own special work had been to ])ro-
vide libraries for county jails, and she was now engaged in collecting
books for the new jail of Saint Louis. Books wexe the photographed
souls that have brightened, and yet brighten, the world. Her belief
was that mercy should be mingled with justice, and reform with pun-
ishment.
Dr. Wines read a paper on " The Criminal," whicli had been commu-
nicated by Dr. Despine, of France. (For this paper, see page 338.)
Judge Walker, of Michigan, read a report on the preventive, reform-
atory, and penal institutions of his State. (For said report, see page
411.)
Hon. John F. Hageman, of New Jersey, read a similar report for that
State. (For his report, see page 428.)
The president (Governor Seymour) said that the papers just read
were now open for discussion. He declared himself in favor of provid-
ing discharged convicts with a certificate, engrossed on parchment,
with seal, &c., attesting their good conduct during their term of imprison-
ment. He thought that such a testimonial would be a stimulus to a vir-
tuous life. The first impulse of nearly all men is to turn away from
the convict and leave him to his fate. But such a certificate might in-
fluence some to throw aside their prejudice, and to aid him in again
becoming a good citizen.
Mr. Pierce, of Massachusetts, remarked that something had been said
of the demoralizing influence of jails on boys and girls. Many had been
struck with horror at seeing small children at such places, intermingled
with hardened criminals, who took pleasure in corrupting them, and in
preparing them to corrupt society on their release. They had a visiting
agency established by law in Massachusetts. The agent and his assist-
ants interested themselves in children charged with violating the law,
aided them on trial, and secured them homes. Boys were restless, un-
easy, fickle. They needed some friend to guide and guard them ; some
one whom they could call upon, and from whom they could obtain
counsel and aid. It might be asked, How do these boys get to prison ?
He answered: By the lower courts, which hurried them ottto jail, when
only accused and not proved guilty of crime, and often not guilty in
fact. There was some friction in the system, but it worked the best of
H. Ex. 185 30
466 NATIONAL PKISON REFORJI CONGRESS OF 1873.
any plan yet devised. Some of the courts sought to break up tlie agency.
But the people had confideuce in it, and kept it in motion. It was doing
great good.
Mr. Vaux, of Pennsylvania, commented on the paper of Dr. Despine,
regarding it as marked by profound thought, keen analysis, and a
thoroughly scientific cast, though he could not accept all its views, par-
ticularly the part relating to indefinite sentences.
Dr. Wines, of New York, concurred in the judgment just expressed of
the ability and value of Dr. Despine's essay. He thought it contained
seeds of thought which could not fail to spring up and bear, in the end,
a rich harvest.
The congress adjourned till to-morrow at 10 a. m.
THIRD DAY — MORNING SESSION.
Thursday, January 23, 1873.
The congress met at 10 a. m.. Governor Seymour presiding, and was
opened with prayer by the Eev. Dr. Smith, of Maryland.
The minutes of yesterday were read and approved. Dr. Wines an-
nounced that, through. funds proffered for this express purpose, the
National Prison Association had been able to issue the complete works
of Edward Livingston on criminal jurisprudence, and they offered these
incomparable volumes to every person who, by an annual subscription
of $10, became a member of the association.
Dr. Bellows, of New York, said that this congress ought not to sepa-
rate without an expression of its sense of obligation to that great man
to whom i^enal science owed so much. He therefore moved, and the
congress unaiiimously adopted, the following resolution:
Eesolvedj That prison science owes an inextinguishable debt of grati-
tude and commemoration to the great American expounder of the
humane jHnnciples which have since been acknowledged as the true
guide to reformers of penal law and administration ; that Mr. Living-
ston, by his genius and moral elevation, anticipated by half a century
the ideas which are now just beginning to prevail among students of
criminal and penitentiary science; and that his work is a monument of
learning, largeness of thought, nobility of feeling, and practical
sagacity — an honor to the country of which he was so distinguished a
citizen, and to humanity, to which he was so noble an example.
Governor Seymour said that the resolution of Dr. Bellows did no more
than justice to 3Ir. Livingston in saying that he was the greatest man
of our country in so far as penal science was concerned. He believed that
he was also the foremost statesman that this country had i)roduced. He
had received a copy of an edition in Prench of Mr. Livingston's work,
recently issued in Paris. He therefore moved, as additional to that of
Dr. ]ieilows, the following resolution :
Resolved, That this congress learns with great satisfaction that M.
Gharles Lucas, a distinguished member of the Institute of Prance, has
j)iiblished,uiid(a' the aus|)i(;es of the institute, an exposition of the penal
code for Louisiana and for the United States, by Edward Jjivingston,
aiMl we ar(5 gratilied that this work of our illustrious countryman is thus
broiiglit to the attention of IOuroi)ean countTies.
On motirin of Dr. Wines, it was ordeied that a committee of five be
ai)i)oint«'d to consider tlie expcMlicncy of making application to the Con-
gress of the (Jnit(^d Stales for aid to the National Prison Association,
and to r«'poit to this conNcntion.
DISCUSSION ON REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 467
The chair named for the committee Judge Walker, R. K. White,
Edward Earle, Dr. Bellows, aud Dr. Wines.
Dr. Bellows presented aud read the annual report of the executive
committee of the National Prison Association. (For this report see
page 321.)
A paper on " Untried Prisoners,'' communicated to the congress by
William J. Mullen, of Pennsylvania, was then read. (For this paper see
page 3G2.)
The chair announced that the two papers just read were open for dis-
cussion.
Mr. Powell, of New York, desired to express the great pleasure which,
in the main, he had felt in listening to the report read by Dr. Bellows.
He, however, took exception to the moral value attached by the report
to the dress of women. There was a vast amount of waste, and worse
than waste, in this direction. He had lately seen a lady in Washiljgtou
the flounces of whose dress alone cost $1,000, and the rest of the dress
corresponded in style and expensiveness. This matter of dress was
becoming one of the strongest temptations to crime. He favored the
dress of Quaker ladies, which was neat and economical, and instanced
Elizabeth Fry and Lucretia Mott as illustrations.-
Dr. Bellows accejited the criticism, saying that his remarks on the
subject of dress were not in the report, but were thrown oft extempo-
raneously in the reading. He took back all that he had said, except the
principle underlying his remarks, which he believed to be just and trtie.
Governor Seymour hoped that the doctor would not surrender too
much. He thought the principle involved a powerful means of cultivat-
ing and refining the sensibilities. We had better seek to quicken these
in prisoners, rather than conquer or crush them.
Mr. Pritchard, of Kentucky, said that for three years past he had had
opportunity to witness the working of prisons. They had a most
objectionable system in Kentuck3\ One feature of the system was the
leasing out not simply the labor of the prisoners, but the prisoners them-
selves, to contractors. The system placed the inmates of the prison com-
pletely under the control of the contractors. They worked the men for
money only, and were sometimes harsh and merciless. Kentucky had
lavished millions on other charities, but nothing on the improvement of
prison discipline. They needed the warden system, so as to have mat-
ters under the control of the State and not that of contractors. He
was willing to trust the people, the great mass of whom were right on
this subject. With a warden at the head of the prison, and the disci-
pline placed in his hands, they would escape some of the worst features
of their present system. It was unwise for the States to rent the con-
victs. He offered a resolution on the subject, which was referred to the
business committee.
Colonel Burr, of Ohio, expressed his thanks to Dr. Bellows for his re-
port. We should not only keep alive the sensibilities of prisoners, but,
what was kindred to that, we should exercise the spirit and power of
kindness instead of mere force. All that Dr. Bellows had said had
been verified over aud over again in his experience and observation.
He had a thousand jirisoners under his charge, and his great source of
power over them lay in the fact that he was their friend. A single and
even a trivial act of kindness would produce great effect.
At this point Governor Seymour called the Hon. Mr. Yaux, of Penn-
sylvania, one of the vice-presidents, to the chair.
Colonel Burr continued : He said that where force had proved of
scarcely any avail, a kind word had accomplished wonders. A Prussian
468 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 187:5.
engraver had beeu in liis prison ; he was a very fine workman and uuich
desired by counterfeiters, who would have given thousands of dollars to
get him for their work. They provided him with means of escape, drills,
&c., and 85,000, and he readily succeeded, but was caught. He was
placed in a cell and expected severe punishment. But when he (Colonel
Burr) went to see him, he simply said, "Charlie, put on your coat and
go to the shop, to work." The man started, surprised, and said, with
tears in his eyes, " Warden, I did not expect this." He walked away,
and turned again and said, "Warden, I will never try this again."
Again he started, and after going a few paces he stopped a third time,
and added, " Warden, you will never have any more trouble with me as
long as I am with you." And he was true to his word. That man
loved him to-day as one of his own children.
Dr. Wines, of Kew York, was afraid that the enthusiasm excited by
the magnificent paper of Dr. Bellows would draw away the attention of
the congress from the modest but very valuable paper of Mr. Mullen,
read immediately after it. He hoped that that document would receive
the attention which it so well deserved. It set forth, clearly and
strongly, the duty of society to persons under arrest, but not yet brought
to trial. It showed how much they stood in need of some friendly inter-
vention, and how much suffering and wrong might be prevented by
timely and judicious action on their behalf.
Mr. Merrefield. of Maryland, emphasized the remarks of Dr. Wines,
and moved that Mr. Mullen's paper be referred to the busines's commit-
tee. Carried.
Mr. Eockwood, of Utah, agreed to all that had been said on the
power of kindness. He had in his prison three of the worst
"roughs" in that Territory. When first committed, they threatened
vengeance, and declared their purpose to escape. He gave them
bread and milk, with strawberries, for their breakfast, and took them
out on the road to work. On leaving them he instructed the overseer
not to work them too hard, as their hands were soft and would blister.
The other prisoners told them that if they behaved well they would be
kindly treated. Next Sunday morning they confessed that their inten-
tion had been to destroy their keepers and escape. Kindness had con-
quered them, and they wept like children. They had been, and con-
tinued to be, among the best men in the prison. He had found it im-
portant to separate the old from the young. Ninety per cent, of the
prisoners were better men on their release than they had been on their
commitment. Tiiat was his experience. Kindness gave power. Hope
should be held out to prisoners.
Mr. Bigham, of Pennsylvania, said that under the leadership of the
great founder, William Penn, his State had been a pioneer in prison
discipline, and she intended to maintain her pre-eminence.
General lOggleston, of iMississippi, said that he was from the South,
and wished to say a few words lespecting that section of the coun-
try. He claimed tliat his State was in advance of some of the older
States. She had forbidden the use of the lash in punishing prisoners.
They had a(loj)ted the comnuitation system, shortening the term of im-
jtrisonment for good conduct three days each month. They had reli-
gious service, Sundiiy-school, a line melodcon played by a convict, and
excellent singers among the ])risoners. Tliey found music a power in
moral training. On ("liristmas th(^y gave the convicts an extra dinner,
and lull freedom within the prison pi'emises to converse and anuise them-
selves as they j)Iease(l. They found no harm, bat rather beni^tit, to be
the result of" this indulgence. On his release they took from the pris-
DISCUSSION ON INTEMPERANCE AND CRIME. 469
oner every mark of bis convict service, gave liiin a complete outfit of
clothing, and ten dollars in money.
A report from New Hampshire, by tlie Eev. Dr. Clark, was read. (See
page 42C.)
A report from South Carolina, prepared by General C. J. Stolbrand,
was read by Judge Walker. (See page 447.)
The Rev. Mr. Woodbury, of Rhode Island, read a report from that
State. (See page 440.)
Dr. Wines, of New York, read a paper contributed by Sir Walter
Crofton, of England, on sundry points discussed at the Congress of
London, with a view of correcting certain errors into which he consid-
ered members of that body had fallen regarding the state of things in
his country. (See page 359.)
Dr. Wines said that it gave him pain to differ from a gentleman
whom he so much respected, admired, and loved, both on account of
his personal qualities and his great services to the cause of prison re-
form as he did with the author of that paper. Still, he could not accept
his views on i>enal labor as an instrument of reformation, or the lash as
a disciplinary punishment in prisons. These were the only points, he
believed; certainly they were the principal ones, on which he dissented
from the opinions of his distinguished friend, to whom the world is so
much indebted for his labors in the cause of prison reform.
Mr, Powell, of New York, read a paper on " Intemperance and Crime."
(See page 3G4.)
Mr. Pierce, of Massachusetts, said that the paper just read treated in-
temperance as the chief cause of criminality. But mere statistics would
not show what produced crime. Intemperance was often an incident of
low life. He referred to the separate system, the Crofton system, and
the Maconochie system of prison discipline, and condemned them all as
" weighed in the balance and found wanting." He did not come there
to boast of his own State; there were things there that ought to be dif-
ferent ; but the worst thing they had to contend with was the indiffer-
ence of the people on this question of prison reform. The administra-
tion of county prisons in Massachusetts was very objectionable; you
could not work into them any regular system.
Mr. Coates, of Pennsylvania, admitted that intemperance was not the
only cause of crime, but it was one of the greatest, in his view the very
greatest, of these causes, and should be distinctly so set forth. In this
matter, he that was not with us was against ns. Let no man tell him
that they had not the power to crush this giant enemy to the order and
welfare of society. They had the power if they would but use it. He
appealed,. in conclusion, to the members of the congress, as men and
as Christians, to aid in the suppression of this great evil.
Mr. Yaux, of Pennsylvania, said that he fully indorsed the views of the
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Pierce) on this subject. He did not
believe that intemperance was the great cause of crime; there were
others greater. He objected to sweeping accusations. The worst mur-
der in New York, that of the policy-dealer, was not caused by intem-
perance ; and so in the Stokes case. He hoped temperance would suc-
ceed, and he would do what he could to help its success ; but, said he,
let us be wise, and not by the mere use of terms, by dreams, increase
the catalogue of crimes.
Mr. Folger, of New Hampshire, said that the rule laid down by the
Savior was, "by their fruits ye shall know them." It was by that
rule that intemperance should be judged in its relation to crime. He
was glad the question had been brought before us. He was sorry it had
been ignored at London. Despite the silence maintained there, the
470 NATIONAL PKISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
governor of au English prison had informed him that drink brought most
of his prisoners there. As to what had been stigmatized as 2^oUce
espionage, we might judge that by its fruits also. It had been tried and
worked well in England. So it might be in this country. There it was
a kind care, and not an espioncif/e at all.
Dr. Parish, of Pennsylvania, had desired to hear the paper on intem-
perance, but had not been in at the reading. He concurred in the views
of Mr. Vans. He once asked the chaplain of the Eastern penitentiary
how many inebriates they had there. He replied, "not one; inebri-
ates are not the kind of persons who become convicts." He protested
against the use of sweeping declarations — against ultraism. Drunken-
ness was not, |;e?' se, a crime.
Mr. Powell, of New York, replying to Dr. Parish, said that he b ad visited
the Eastern penitentiary, and was informed by the warden that nine-tenths
of the inmates had been addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors. As to
the murden?r, Foster, it vras in evidence that he had spent the evening in
drinking, and Stokes was of the same character ; he had been assured
that he was under the influence of liquor when he committed the act.
The paper he had read did not undertake to Hx the status of drunken-
ness ; the laws and the courts had done that.
The Pev. Mr. Woodbury, of Ehode Island, said that we were very apt to
consider things that seemed to be connected as cause and effect. We might
possibly err in this. None of us would consider drunkenness as a crime of
itself ; but we all agreed that intemperance and intoxication were indic-
ative of a want of self-control, in which state all crimes became pos-
sible; and a lack or neglect of possible self-control was sin. The appe-
tite for drink was sometimes inherited ; and the desire for gratification
came upon its subjects periodically, say, every six or twelve months,
and v.'as then uncontrollable. He once roomed in a theological school
with a young gentleman whose apx^etitecame upon him so strongly that
he shut himself up for several days and secretly indulged in drink. And
then, after an interval of soberness, he would have another surrender
of himself to drink. The hahit of intemperance was formed by indul-
gence, not inherited, or caused by disease. This habit was indicative
of a want of self-command, a lack of full manhood, that we should en-
deavor to develop and strengthen. Persons without this self-command
were often shown by facts and confession to have been suddenly assailed
with temptation, without any previous intention, to commit crime. Con-
victs very frequently stated that they had no thought of doing the
wrong until they l^ecame intoxicated.
Kecess until 7 o'clock i>. m.
EVENING SESSION.
The congress reassembled at the appointed hour, Governor Seymour
in the chair.
Mr. Develin, of Xcw York, read a paper on the susceptibility of crim-
inals to reformatory inlhiencM's, coiiuiiunicated by ])r. Andeison, presi-
dent of the New York Catholic; Protectojy, who was unable to be pres-
ent himself. (For Dr. Anderson's ])aper see page .350.)
Dr. Wines said that it wouhl be impossible for him to present his an-
anual rei)ort in lull, unless the congress was prei)ared to devote a day
to hearing it read. As this evenir)g was to be given up to a considera-
tion of Hiformatory work, he would read what his report contained on
the reformatory svslcm of (Jreat I>iitain. (See Part lofliis report,
pp. llC-122.)
DISCUSSION ON REFOKMATORY WORK. 471
Dr. Wines read a coininmiication from Mr, Demetz, louuder and
director of the penitentiary colony of Mettray, France, on the prepara-
tory school, connected with the colony, for the training of sub-ofticers to
be employed in the iustitutioM. (For the letter of Mr. Demetz, see
page 358.)
The Eev. Mr. Woodbury, of Rhode Island, read an exceedingly in-
teresting paper on preventive and reformatory work in Massachusetts,
prepared by Mr. F. B. Sanborn, a member of the board of public chari-
ties in that State. (For Mr. Sanborn's paper see page 400.)
Mr. Develin then addressed the congress in regard to the Catholic
Protectory of New York City. He said that the institution was founded
and commenced operations in 1803. It had since aided 7,000 children. The
present number of inmates was l,2o0, 300 of whom were girls. It was in
no sense a prison, with bars and massive walls to encompass the children, ■
but an institution ^yhere the children were made to feel that the managers
and officers were their true friends,aud where the rule was maintained al-
most wholly by moral forces. The boys all learned trades, becoming type-
setters, stereotypers, machinists, shoe-makers, tailors, carpenters, chair-
makers, bakers, farmers, and gardeners. Aua'icount was kept with each
boy and girl in the institution. The officers were careful to inculcate the
idea that labor is a duty, and that it is ennobling, not degrading. They,
allowed inmates so much per mouth or week, according to their
diligence. One boy had earned enough to bring his mother, three
brothers, and a sister from Ireland to this country. Another had saved
and invested $300 in laud near the school, and the indications were that
by the time the lad had reached his majority, his investment would
yield him sufficient capital to enable him to start in business. Many
other boys in the school had accumulated kirger or smaller sums of
money by their industrj^. In the shoe-making business, the institution
was a small Lynn. The boys did jobs of printing for i)eople outside,
and the same with other trades carried on in the protectory. They had
pigeon-holes, into which were put checks or tokens of good conduct;
and the scholars, according to the number of these tokens, received
small gifts; to the younger children were given toys; to the older,
money. They allowed the well-behaved to roam in the adjoining woods,
to bathe in the river, to row in boats, and to fish. In this way they
endeavored to show the boys that they were their friends. They en-
deavored to bend the twig aright, so that when the boy became a man,
he would prove a good and useful citizen. The boys felt that their
institution was a home. The protectory was a Roman Catholic institu
tion, but it received Protestant boys and girls, and no restriction was
placed upon their attending Protestant chTirches and Sunday schools,
nor were any attempts made to induce them to embrace the Catholic
faith.
Mr. Develin said that there were more causes than one for congratu-
lation on the meeting of this congress, but a principal cause was the
common ground on which we could all stand, compare views, and work
in harmony. It had been so in the Cincinnati and London congresses,
and it was so in this. Dr. Wines, an eminent American Protestant,
and Dr. Manning, an eminent Catholic prelate of England, united in
the one great and noble work of assisting the prisoner in his efforts to
reform. We had hoped for the presence of the Catholic archbishop of
this city, who had been invited to open" one of the sessions of this con-
gress with prayer ; but he had been prevented by sickness, which had
caused him to seek a healthier clime.
Mr. Develin closed by inviting the members of the congress to visit
472 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
the protectoiy. If they would come to the office, No. UO Iteadc street,
they would be conveyed to the iustitutiou by carriages.
Mr. Pritchard, of Kentucky, in consideration of his being obliged to
leave the city to-night, asked that the discussion on reformatory insti-
tutions might be suspended at this point to enable him to introduce,
and the congress to pass, a resolution condemning the system of leas-
ing prisons to contractors. It was a question in which he felt a very
deep interest, and he would be glad to be present when it was dis-
cussed. It was explained by the ])resident that when the subject came
up for consideration to-morrow, the colleagues of Mr. Pritchard would
be present, and would, no doubt, represent the public opinion of Ken-
tucky on this subject. After further conversatiou, Mr. Pritchard
withdrew his request, and the discussion on reformatories was resumed.
Mr. Talcott, of Rhode Island, said that he was from a small State,
and was at the head of one of the sinallest institutions for reform in
the country. The work was a great one, and how to do it wisely and
well was the question. To learn this he had come here ; and while willing
to give his own views, he hoped to hear from others who had had greater
experience. He had two hundred children and youths in his institution,
and thirty more placed in families iu different parts of the State, whose
names were on the roll. They were boarded out at $2 a week, and
' must be reported upon at least monthly. From one to two dollars a
week were paid for their education. If the children staid three or
four months in a family, arrangements were made for continuing them
there. The discipline of the institution was parental, as much so as
they knew how to make it. Some correction was occasionally neces-
sary, and a little chastisement, administered in a right spirit, had a
good effect. The special featyire of the institution was that of a family-
home.
The Eev. Father Quiun, of New York, asked: "Do you have walls
surrounding your reformatory P'
. Mr. Talcott replied that they had.
Father Quinn. " Is there any special feature in your institution
wherein it differs from other reformatories ?"
Mr. Talcott. " No, it is very much like other institutions, having
the same end in view."
Itev. Mr. Sheldon, of New Jersey, superintendent of the reform school
for boys at Jamesburgh, said that their plan embodied the family S3-stem
as far as possible. Boys were sent to them up to twenty-one years of
age. They had power to release any inmate at the end of a year, if
they judged it expedient. They sought to infuse the stimulus of hope
into the minds of the boys.* They had no encircling wall. They sought
to get into the heart of the boy ; they sympathized with him in his
troubles, and so endeavored to hold him by the power of kindness.
For the encouragement of fellow-laborers in this Avork, lie would say
that kindness had wrought wonders for them. It was the great power
witli wliicli to mohl tliese young heaits to virtue. It won their confi-
dence and lestoicd their sclfivspoct, both of which were great elements
in effecting tlieir refoiniation.
Mr. Shii)h'y, of Ohio, thought that i)revention was the great thing.
lie believed in com[)ulsory e<lu('ation as an effective means to this end.
There were jiarents Avho would not educate their children, but would
sooner train them lor ciime and ruin. They had a law in Ohio by
which they could take a cliild away from such parents, to the benefit of
society and the sahiitioii of the child.
DISCUSSION ON KEFORMATORY WORK. 473
Judge Walker, of Michigau, asked : "How loug have you liad this
law, aud Avhat have been its results?"
Mr. Shipley answered : " We have had" the law four years, aud it
has worked well ; many children have been rescued and placed in good
homes with farmers."
Judge Walker : " Can children be taken away from parents without
their consent f"
Mr. Shipley: "Yes. Our institution is 'the house of refuge' for
those worse than orphan children."
Mr. Milligan, of Western Pennsylvania, said that they had adopted
in their prison almost all the reformatory measures that had been advo-
cated in this congress, and they looked forward to a bright future of
successful reformatory woric. But he would like to hear discussed in
this congress the criminal codes of the several States and their adminis-
tration. He believed that there was more crime produced by defective
laws and bad administration than was prevented or punished by them.
Criminal laws and courts seemed to him a uwghty machine for the
manufacture of criminals. He favored indefinite sentences and graded
prisons. Would they turn a jierson infected with the small-pox loose
to spread the contagion ? That seemed to him quite as reasonable as it
would be to release a prisoner infected with the leprosy of crime, which .
was worse than that of small-pox.
Mr. Ames, of Massachusetts, desired to emphasize the views expressed
by Mr. Shipley in favor of preventive measures. They had a law in
Massachusetts like that of Ohio, by which children exposed to want
and in danger of falling into crime could be taken from their parents,
and thns preserved from matured criminality. That was prevention,
which was better than cure. The lovers of humanity should awake and
put forth every effort to save the crowds rushing to ruin, young women
especially. Seventy-five per cent, of those rescued by this law from the
criminal example aud teaching of their parents, and from association
with the vile, were saved. They should retain a supervision over such
during their minority, kindly watching over them, getting them into
good family-homes, and thus preparing them for the highest position that
woman could occupy — that of wife and mother. He might be an enthu-
siast, -but he believed that hundreds and thousands of girls, now just
commencing a course of crime and infamy, might be saved. A far
greater number of institutions than now existed should be established
in every State, both preventive and reformatory. '
Mr. Eockwood, of Utah, said that in 1853 an act was passed in that
Territory, authorizing the probate judge to take any child, on presenta-
tion of proper evidence that it needetl care, and bind it out, at the dis-
cretion of the court. He had known children who had been thus saved
as brands from the burning. They could also bind out juvenile oliend-
ers that were found drunk on the streets ; if claimed by responsible
persons, they were surrendered ; but if there were no such to care for
them, they bound them out.
Dr. Wright, of Tennessee, read a report on the penitentiary system
of his State. (For his report see p. 449.)
iSTo report having been sent in from Missouri, General Miner and Mr.
Miller submitted a report prepared during the sessions of the congress,
which, without being read, was placed on file. (For this report see p. 424.)
General Miner, on behalf of the Missouri delegation, invited the con-
gress to hold its next meeting in Saint Louis, and assured them of a
hearty welcome.
Adjourned till 10 to-morrow morning.
474 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
FOURTH DAY — MORNING SESSION.
Friday, January 24, 1873.
The congress re-assembled at 10 a. m., pursuant to adjournment.
In the absence of the president, Judge Walker, of Michigan, one of
the vice-presidents, on invitation, took the chair.
The Eev. J. L. Milligau, of Pennsylvania, opened the session with
prayer.
Mr. Miller, of Missouri, renewed the invitation to the congress to hold
its next meeting in Saint Louis, repeating the assurance of cordial wel-
come by the city and the State, and adding, " You need to see our people
and our city ; .and we need to see and hear you, to receive the lessons
you will give us, and to feel the quickening of your presence."
On motion, the invitation was accepted, with thanks. Subsequently
in the day, a telegram was read from the Hon. Joseph Brown, mayor of
Saint Louis, repeating the invitation, and promising the congress the
heartiest of Missouri welcomes, which was received with much applause.
Dr. Wines stated that the board of directors of the Xational Prison
Association, at a meeting held in this city yesterday, had resolved to
have these annual congresses in the spring, during the month of May
or June, the exact date to be fixed according to circumstances, by the
board, or its executive committee, and that the next meeting would, as
a matter of course, take place in the spring of 1874.
Dr. Wines further stated that the constitution of the national associ-
ation provided, that committees of correspondence should be formed in
all the States at the earliest practicable moment, to cooperate with the
association in i)ushing the work of prison reform in all its departments,
but especially' in the gathering of criminal, penitentiary, and reforma-
tory statistics, and that he had been instructed by the board of direct-
ors to invite the delegations from the several States to hand in to him
the names of such persons as they judged competent and suitable to be
placed upon the proposed committees. He further said that it was the
judgment of the board that where boards of State charities or i)rison as-
sociations exist, instead of forming new organizations they should be
invited to co-operate with the national association in the manner and
for the purpose indicated.
On motion, it was ordered that the further reading of reports from
States be dispensed with, and that reports not hitherto read be referred
to the executive committee of the association for publication, either in
full or epitomized form, in the transactions of this congress.
])r. Wines read a ]tni)er by Miss Carpenter, of England, on life-sen-
tenced prisoners, at the conclusion of whi(!h he said that he much re-
gretted that the i)ressure of business on this last day of the sessions
of the congress was such as to forbid an extended consideration of the
very im])()rtant question treated by Miss Carpenter. The i)aper was
able and suggestive, like everything that came from the pen of that
distinguished j)hilantlirojnst and writer. It presented many very strik-
ing views, and though tliere was no time at i)resent to consider and
discuss them, tin; <'ssay would be printed as a part of the ])roceedings,
and would be as seed <-,ast into the i)ublic mind and thouglit of the
conntry and tlie woild. (I^'or JMiss Carpenter's pa|)er see])age .'548.)
j\lr. Sliij)ley, of Ohio, cliairman of the finance committee, and treas-
urer of the congress, repoited Dial '^L'tl had been received, that all bills
had been j)ai<l, and tliat there remaine<l a snrplus of $73.85. On motion
of I\Ir. Ciiflitli, of Maryhind, it was onh^-ed that the balance in the
liands of treasnrer be ai)]»ioi)iiated to the National Prison Association,
DISCUSSION ON MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS. 475
aud it was accordiugly lianded over to tbe secretary, for trausmission
to the treasurer of the association.
In the absence of Mr. Moufort and the other secretaries of the con-
gress, General James L. Miner, of Missouri, was, by vote of the con-
gress, invited to act as secretary in their pUice.
Dr. AVines, on behalf of the special committee appointed to consider
the expediency of petitioning Congress to make an appropriation in aid
of the work of the National Prison Association, reported the draught
of a memorial addressed to that body.
General Eggleston, of Mississippi, and Mr. Vaux, of Pennsylvania,
doubted the propriety of the action proposed.
Governor Seymour, of New York, said that he was what was called a
" States' rights '' man, and that upon that point he agreed with the gen-
tlemen who had preceded him. But there was one aspect of this case
which took it out of the scope of their criticisms. The movement in
which we were engaged was national, aud even international. We were
in fact a part of the congress which met in London last year. We acted,
therefore, in a national relation. Criminal administration and i)rison
discipline belonged to the National Government, as well as to the gov-
ernments of the States, for the United States, equally with the individ-
ual States, had its courts aud its convicts. Besides, the District of Co-
lumbia and the Territories were within our purview, and these were
under the immediate jurisdiction of the National Government. And
then, as he had said, this work was international, as well as national.
The Loudon Congress formed a permanent international commission,
charged with the duty of organizing a plan for the c<)llection of inter-
national penitentiary statistics upon common principles, and according
to common formulas ; and it was expected that all nations would co-
operate in this work. Would the United States Government alone stand
aloof from it ? He thought that the^jroverument should not and would
not decline co operation in an object at once so catholic and so impor-
tant.
The discussion was continued for some time, a number of delegates
taking part therein.
Governor Seymour resumed the chair, and Judge Walker moved that
the report of the committee be adopted; that thtf president aud secre-
tary be authorized to sign the memorial ; and that a committee of thir-
teen, of which the president should be chairman, be appointed to
present the memorial to Congress.
The motion passed, and the following gentlemen were appointed on
the committee: Hon. Horatio Seymour, of New York, chairman ; Hon.
Richard Vaux, of Pennsylvania ; General J. L. Miner, of Missouri :
General B. B. Eggleston, of Mississippi; Hon. C. L Walker, of Michi-
gan ; Governor F. Smyth, of New Hampshire ; Hon. Edward Earle, of
Massachusetts ; Hon. R. K. White, of Kentucky ; Hon. Isaac D. Jones,
of Maryland ; Murray Shipley, Esq., of Ohio ; Professor W. F. Phelps,
of Minnesota ; Eev. H. W. Bellows, D. D., of New York ; and Dr. E.
C. Wines, of New York.
Mrs. Richardson, of Missouri, through Judge Walker, offered the fol-
lowing resolution, which was unanimously carried, viz :
Resolved, That the friends of prison reform be earnestly invited to
show their interest in the cause by becoming members of the National
Prison Association, and thus promote its usefulness and at the same
time aid in the circulation of the works of that great statesman, jurist,
and prison reformer, Edward Livingston.
476 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
Mrs. Eicliardson sent up $10 to constitute herself a member of the
association, thus proving; her faith by her works.
Judge Walker, of the business committee, reported six resolutions on
jioints which had been, in some form, referred to the said committee.
For these propositions see further on, under the heading '' Eesolutions
adopted by the congress."
The first resolution, relating to the connection between intemi)erance
and crime, the subject having been fully discussed yesterday, was car-
ried unanimously.
The second resolution, relating to the leasing of prisons, gave rise
to an extended discussion.
General Eggleston, of jVIississippi, said that the " leasing system " pre-
vailed in his State, but worked ba((ly. They found themselves imposed
upon by the lessees. The men were overworked. There was constant
friction between the State authorities and the lessees. The authorities
insisted that the men should have wholesome and sufficient rations, and
be suitably clad, kindly treated, and not overtasked. The lessees com-
plained that such interference curtailed their profits, and would compel
them to surrender their contract. He thought that when their new
prison building was completed and the}' had room for all their convicts
to work within the prison premises, the system would be definitely
abandoned.
Dr. Wright, of Tennessee, defended the system, as practised in his
State. They retained control of the discipline and management of the
prison. They did not for a moment lose sight of the interests of the
convicts, whose reformation they earnestly sought.
Mr. South, of Kentuckj', said that he did not quite agree with the
views of his colleague, Mr. Pritchard. He defended the system in part,
and commended the humanity of the late lessee. Captain Todd.
Judge Walker, of Michigan, said that there seemed to be some diffi-
culty or misunderstanding, which he thought grew out of the term
"leasing." He thought the word " contracting" would be preferable.
There was a prejudice against leasing, but in all the States there was
something of the contract i^rinciple and practice. The terai "leasing"
conveyed different ideas to different minds.
Governor Sejmout supposed leasing and contracting to be very much
the same thing.
Dr. Wines, of Kew York, said that, with all deference to the two
eminent gentlemen who had last addresse<l the congress, he conceived
that there was a material difference between the leasing system and the
contract system, and, altliough he did not like the latter, he considered
the former greatly more objectionable. Under the contract system, the
labor oidy of tlie convict was hired out; while the whole care of the
jnisoners, the discipline, tlie clothing, the bedding, the food, the medical
attendance, the religious and secular instruction, the hours of labor,
&c., were retained in the hands of the authorities. But, under the
leasing system, all this was changed. The whole control and manage-
jiient of the prison, including tluv nuiterial and moral interests of the
prisoners, were turned o\er to the lessee, who was sometimes an indi-
\idual and sometimes a business company ; but always a party whose
sole, object was to grow rich, lirst out of wiiat the convicts couhl earn,
and next out of what could be saved from the cost of feeding, clothing,
and housing tlujm. 'i'ln^ ]uison was let, as lie, understood it, for a term
of years, to the party who offer<Ml the highest bonus to the State, over
and above th(^ kec]) ;ind care of the prisoiU3rs. Other considerations
might possibly come in, but this was the main and controlling one. He
DISCUSSION ON SYSTEM OF LEASING PRISONS. 477
looked upoji it as a system objectionable to the last degree. It was the
same system against which John Howard, a himdred years ago,.lifted
up his voice aud employed his pen. That was the English system of his
day. He had had some opportunity oflearniug the state of public opiuiou
in some of the States where the system had been tried in this country. He
first met the system in Illinois in 1865, where he found public sentiment
unanimous, or nearly so, against it ; and a year or two later it was
crushed out. He next went to Missouri, where the system had previously
existed, but public opinion had destroyed it. He then passed over to
Kentucky, where the system was then and is still in vogue. But even
there those most closely connected with it — the prison inspectors, for ex-
ample— were against it. One of them pronounced it, in his judgment, the
worst system that human ingenuity could devise. He admitted, and
was glad to admit, that Captain Todd, who was at that time the lessee,
was a humane and just man, and he had proved his disinterestedness,
as well as the breadth of his views and the elevation of his character,
by advocating a policy which no doubt would have taken thousands of
dollars annually out of his pocket, that is to say, the creation of a prison
for juvenile offenders, which would have removed fifty to a hundred
young men from his institution, and deprived him of the profit of
their labor. He believed that Captain Todd had acted justly and honor-
ably by the convicts, but the account he had received of the conduct of
previous lessees — some, not all — was quite different. It was tiieprineiple
of the plan to which he objected. It was too liable to abuse, aud the
temptation to abuse was too strong. In the millennium it might do, if
there were any prisons then ; but in the present condition of human
nature, he believed the system radically and incurably vicious.
Mr. White, of Kentucky, agreed with Dr. Wines. He did not ask
the congress to pass judgment upon his State, but he wanted to settle
a principle of prison treatment. Indiana had once tried this system;
but she found that while it enriched the contractor it robbed the \}eo-
pie and demoralized the prisoner.
Colonel Burr, of Ohio, said that though they contracted the labor of
their prisoners, they retained complete control of them. A contractor
could not even sjyeak to a prisoner, except to tell him what to do, and
he (Colonel B.) had the power, on the least interference of a con-
tractor, to dismiss him and forbid his return to the prison; and more
than once he had exercised that power. But leasing a penitentiary,
with the power of control over the convicts vested in the lessee, was a
different matter. That was going back to the dark ages of prison dis-
cipline.
The Kev. Mr. Woodbury, of Rhode Island, said that public opinion
controlled prison systems as it did everything else. As a congress we
could only suggest reforms and then leave the States to decide for
themselves.
Dr. Wines asked Mr. Woodbury whether the contractor in the Ehode
Island prison did not agree to employ discharged convicts in his factory
outside.
Mr. Woodbury replied that there was no stipulation of that kind in
the contract; but there was an understanding to that effect and an
obligation of honor for them to do so.
Colonel Burr said that this was, to a considerable extent, the case in
Ohio.
Mr. Miller, of Missouri, expressed his detestation of the leasing sys-
tem where the lessee had control of the prisoners. Where the State
had control it was better; but he would prefer to have the State work
478 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
the men. It might do so through a competent agent as well as a
contractor could. Mere mouey-making should not be a consideration.
It was wrong to put prisoners into the hands of men whose sole aim
was to enrich themselves out of their toil. It was the worst kind of
slavery.
Mr. Woodbury said that a practical difficulty would be the capital.
Where should that be obtained ?
Mr. Griffith, of Maryland, without at all favoring the system of leasing,
claimed that that of letting the labor on contract worked well in the
Maryland penitentiary. The board had entire control.
The resolution was then adopted.
Judge Walker read the third resolution, relating to accused but
untried prisoners; and the fourth relating to the aiding of discharged
convicts, which were considered together.
The Eev. Mr. Doll, of Maryland, agent of the Prisoners' Aid Society,
said that his society did something in the way of looking after the
arrested, as well as in aid of those released from prison. Their associ-
ation was but three years old, yet 581 prisoners had been discharged by
the courts through his intervention. The facts collected by his investi-
gations had convinced the judges either that they were innocent or that
the charges against them were too trivial for grave, judicial proceedings.
Eleven hundred and sixty-five had been aided with money ; three
hundred and forty-nine had had steady places provided for them, and
two hundred and eighty-eight had been furnished with temporary em-
ployment. His own house had been for the last twelve months turned
into a refuge for discharged female prisoners, and he would soon have
to ask the people of Baltimore to provide a home for such, for the num-
ber was becoming too great for his limited accommodations. God had
given him a large-hearted, noble helpmate in his wife. Fifteen poor
creatures were then in his house, who but a short time ago were
within {he walls of the penitentiary. Fourteen of them were colored
girls. And these poor creatures had made his house a hanking
house for their savings. He begged pardon for his warmth in this
matter. I feel (said he) that I have a greater responsibility resting upon
me than when I was ordained by the bishop, in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, to what would be called a higher order of the ministry. 0! sir,
we want ^prison ministry. I say to my brethren in the ministry, we must
come down from our pulpits and minister to them that are in jmson.
A poor girl rescued from the whirlpool of prostitution and received
into our lioino until we i'ound her a place of em})loyment has visited us
a dozen times since, bringing small presents to testify her gratitude.
JShe has recently been restored to her father's house, in Virginia. No
I)risoners' aid association is complete without a prison agent connected
with it. We took charge of three poor girls a short time since that "but
for our aid society wouhl have speedilj' rushed to ruin. Now they are
saved, and are in membership witli the church. We are but doing the
Master's work when we thus (/o f/o/rn and seek to save the lost. Mr.
I 'resident, I sujipose that my time is very limited ; but I wish to use it
all in i)l<'ading esix'cijiily lor the \wo\: cliildren needing our sym])athy
and aid. I'^or tlicin I could stand and plead until the going down of the
sun.
Mr. Mcncficld said that ]>rison n^lbrni in Baltimore owed much to
Mrs. Doll for the, suc(;('ss attained llirougli the labors of her husband.
aMi'. (Irillith related several telling ineidents connected with this work
in Baltimore. lie, said that the most faithl'ul ])orter he ever had in his-
store was a discharged convict.
DISCUSSION ON RESOULTION RELATING TO REFORMATORIES. 479
The resolutions were carried.
Judge Walker next read the fifth resolution, relating to the necessity
of vigorous effort to improve the administration of existing prison sys-
tems.
In doing so, he said that the States did not, as a general thing, pay
salary enough to secure and retain good men as wardens and keepers.
The very best men were needed for the duties required.
The Kev. Mr. Milligan, of Pennsylvania, thought the resolution a,
very wise one. The idea was not to interfere with special systems, but
to stir up all to work, on their own plans, in the best and most effective
manner.
Mr. Coates, of Pennsylvania, said that that was the true idea. Let
each follow his own chosen and well considered way, and " by their
fruits shall ye know them."
The resolution was adopted.
• Eecess until 7 p. m.
EVENING SESSION.
The congress re-assembled at the hour named, Mr. Yaux in the chair.
Judge Walker read a letter from Alfred H. Love, of Philadelphia,
apologizing for his absence from the meeting, expressing his sympathy
in its objects, and giving his views at some length on the subject of
prison discipline. (For Mr. Love's paper see page 374.)
Dr. Wiaes submitted a similar though shorter letter from Dr. Aiken,
of Wilmington, Delaware, apologizing for his absence. He had lost
his wife, and the funeral took place during the meeting of the congress.
Dr. Wines also read a short letter from Eev. C. C. Foote, late chap-
lain of the Detroit House of Correction. (For Mr. Foote's letter see
page 314.)
He further submitted a letter received sometime ago from Hon. B. F.
Butler. (For said letter see p. 369.)
Governor Seymour took the chair at this point, and announced the
committee of thirteen on the memorial to be presented to Congress.
The names of the gentlemen constituting the committee have already
been given.
Judge Walker read the sixth resolution, relating to reformatories.
Dr. Hatch, of Connecticut, said that we had the boys, and the ques-
tion was, What kind of citizens shall they be ! We needed good citi-
zens, and such came from good homes. He approved of compulsory
education, and hoped for its general adoption. If the children were
rightly educated, we would not need either penal or reformatory institu-
tions. He questioned the necessity of such a resolution ; it was but
the alphabet; we were beyond that. Let us have warm hearts to
receive the children kindly. Of course we would pass the resolution ;
but we were already getting beyond it.
Dr. Wines reminded Dr. Hatch that if Connecticut was beyond it,
Texas was not ; nor Arkansas ; nor Oregon ; nor a half score of other
States.
Mr. Bigham, of Western Pennsylvania, said that since the Cincinnati
Congress they had been considering the question of changing their in-
stitution— the Western House of Eefuge — and had concluded to adopt
the family plan instead of the congregate, formerly in use. They were
going out some miles into the country. It would take them two years,
probably, to complete their new buildings, and then they meant to have
the model reform school of the country.
Mr. Coates favored teaching these boys trades. Skilled workmen
480 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OP 187:5.
were becoming scarce, and were greatly needed. The reformatories
might aid in snpplying this want.
Mr. Shipley, of Ohio, said that the members of the convention some-
times lost sight of the main i)oint. It A\'as not so mucli, how can wo cure
the convicts and have them become good nien, as how can we prevent the
children from becoming convi<!ts ? Compulsory education was good, but
it alone would not keep boys from growing up into criminals. We nuist
adapt our schools to the circumstances and wants of the children. There
were a great many agencies. Among them lie was i)leased to see the
feature in the New York Catholic Protectory, referred to l)y Mr. Develin,
that of giving rewards to little boys, lie admired that plan. They had
established a school in Cincinnati, and they provided a warm diinier for
the needy children that attended it. They took 150 children from the
street, and fed, taught, aud saved them. They had their private visi-
tor, whose business it was to find and bring them to the school ; and after
they had interested them in learning, they transferred them, if possible,
to the public schools. They tried to act on the princii)le of the patriarch
Job : " The cause which 1 knew not, 1 searched out."
Mr. Yaux, of Pennsylvania, believed that the old Greeks used to pray
that the gods would endow us with the eloquence of silence, lie felt
the need of that prayer. lie had been ap])ealed to, quoted, unkindly
criticised, and kindly laughed at, by some of the members of that con-
gress, lie had tried to bear it all as well as he could, and kept on
praying as did the Greeks. But the time had come when it became
necessary for him to say a single word in defense of his views. It had
been said, " there is no partisanship in what is spoken here. We are
all met to devise means to advance the cause of reform." However that
might be, he would say, God Mess the irork. They should lay dovvu gen-
eral pri)iei])les, and not go too much into particular measures. Some
had praised Christianity. That was right ; but they had given a slap
at the individual system of treating convicts.
The l*ennsylvania system had been discussed, while it was not under-
stood by five gentlemen out of the State. The i)hrase ^^ solitary conftue-
ment " had been used and applied to it. Miss Gilbert so characterized
it, and asked, " ^Vould you hang a Christian?" Y^es, he would hang
forty " Christians," if they broke the law and were found guilty. The
Pennsylvania system should be spoken of as the separate or individual
system, lloward did not commence visiting British prisons until long
after Pennsylvania had reformed abuses in the indiscriminate, or rather
110 system, which then prevailed. To Pennsylvania belonged the praise
of moving first in this reform. The best paper read in that congress on
the prison (juestion was that of I3r. Despine, of Prance. Until you ele-
vate this reform to a st;ienee, you arc running after vagaries. You
must study and know the criminal himself. Such knowledge was the
basis of all right prison treatnuMit. You cannot reform criminals by
merely ])Utting them into prison, nor ]irevent crime by putting boys into
refoririatories. You most hud out what are the causes, and adai)t your
treatment to them. That is the problem ; that strikes at the root of the
matter. All else is but ])laying with the surface. You must look at
l)rinciples, not mere details. You must look at the question as states-
men, not as i)oliticians. Politics must be eliminated fiom pi-isons and
prison management.
The ])resident asked Mr. Vanx whether in Pennsylvania- the prison-
ers wei(; ke|)t separate, or were allowed to leceive visits.
Mr. Yaux caid that they were separated from each (jthcr, but not from
the world.
VALEDICTORY ADDRESSES. 481
The Eev. Mr. Bradford, of Connecticut, said that the great question
was how to care for the young in the reformatory, how to save them
from becoming criminals. They should take care of the girls in peril of
falling. Save them, and society was saved. They had in Connecticut
the model school. They were ahead of Massachusetts. They had had
remarkable instances of reformation, of which he gave several interest-
ing illustrations. They had no bars and bolts more than in private
houses. As regarded labor, the girls were engaged in making paper
boxes, and ten per cent, of the money earned belonged to themselves.
Some had saved $75 or $100. This was a great stimulus ; it put hope
into them, without which none of us could accomplish much.
The resolution was then agreed to unanimously.
On motion, the cordial thanks of the congress were tendered to the
Prisoners' Aid Association of Maryland for the abundant labor expend-
ed in preparation for this meeting; to the citizens of Baltimore, for
courtesies and hospitalities ; to the band of the House of Eefuge for
the excellent music with which they entertained the congress at its
opening session ; to Mr. Raine for a liberal reduction on the rent of his
beautiful and commodious hall ; to railroad companies and proprietors
of hotels for reduction of fares and board; to the reporters of the asso-
ciated press and the Baltimore journals for their services in making
known the doings of the congress ; to the Eev. Wm. H. Tiffany, who
kindly rendered his service as ofiicial reporter to the body without
charge ; to the Young Men's Christian Association and the managers
of the numerous penal, reformatory, and charitable institutions of Balti-
more and Aicinity for invitations to visit and inspect the establishments
under their care ; and to the Hon. Michael C. Kerr, a member of the
Congress of the United States from the State of Indiana, and of this
body by appointment of the executive of that State, for his eloquent
and instructive address, delivered on the evening of the 21st instant.
Dr. Wines moved the following :
This congress, while expressing its gratitude for the valuable reports
and papers furnished by writers, at home and abroad, cannot assume
responsibility for every sentiment and utterance contained in them. It
holds itself responsible only for the ])rinciples and acts sanctioned by a
formal vote.
Dr. Hatch rose and said: The business of this congress is concluded.
I hope we shall now, for a few moments, resolve ourselves into a mutual
admiration society, have a good time, and shake hands all round. I
love sharp men, [looking at Mr. Vaux;] they bring out points more dis-
tinctly.
Mr. Vaux reciprocated the kindly feeling.
Dr. Hatch continued : We shall go home refreshed, prepared to work
with warmer hearts and a more earnest zeal. We are satisfied that the
great thing is, to have the right kind of men in charge of our prisons
and reformatories. It is not the separate, or the associated, or the fam-
ily system that will do the work; but good men, earnest men, men
working in the right spirit. Thus acting, we shall advance in our great
reform ; and when we meet next year, in Saint Louis, brothers Vaux
and Milligan and all being there, we will renew friendships, compare
notes, exchange congratulations, and move onward with equal tread in
the march of imi^rovement.
Mr. White, of Kentucky, expressed his pleasure at seeing his own
opinion so fully represented in this congress. Once the cry was, save
the criminal ; now the better idea is, to preserve from crime. The
friends of this movement will hear of our doings, and take courage.
H. Ex. 185 31
482 NATIONAL PRISON EEFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
Mr. Talcott exi^ressed mncli satisfaction with what he had seen, heard,
and felt since he came to Baltimore. He believed that in this warfare
upon crime we should prevail, relying for the victory on Him " to whom
belong the kingdom, and the power, and the glory."
Dr. Wines said : I do not rise, Mr. President, to make a speech, but
to give, in few words, an account of my stewardship. It is just twenty-
seven months since the Cincinnati congress met, at which meeting it
was voted, with absolute unanimity, that an international congress
should be convened. Cincinnati asked me to undertake the organization
of that movement. It was impossible to answer so grave a proposition
on the spur of the moment. All I could then do was to promise to con-
sider it, venturing, however, to add, that in case I concluded to accept
the honor and the labor, if there did not, in 1872, assemble in London a
congress composed of five hundred delegates, coming from the very ends
of the earth, it should not be for the want of work put forth to accom-
plish that result. Well, the congress met in London last Julj\ More
than four hundred delegates were present. Every state in Europe, ex-
cept Portugal, was officially represented. Our own Government, Mexico,
several of the South American States, the West India Islands, Bengal,
Ceylon, Australia, Japan, 'Hong-Kong, and most of the States of our
own Union, had delegates there. It was an able body, equipped and
ripe for the work in hand. And notwithstanding these four hundred and
odd representative men and women came from so many and such widely
distant regions, diifering in nationalities, speech, institutions, usages,
ideas, and manners, yet, after ten days of mutual conference and consulta-
tion, they were able to agree, unanimously, upon a declaration of prin-
ciples of prison discipline, which was substantially an echo of the
declaration made at Cincinnati. Surely, " the Divinity that shapes our
ends " never stood more conspicuously revealed than in such an issue
under such circumstances. I have been permitted to see all this, and to
return to commit the result of the work which you gave into my hands
to your judgment and kindness.
Colonel Burr, of Ohio. The congress can only say, " Well done, good
and faithful servant."
Judge Walker moved a special vote of thanks to the Hon. Horatio
Seymour for the ability, dignity, and courtesy with which he has per-
formed the duties of the chair ; and to Dr. Wines for his faithful, devoted,
and successful services in the cause of prison reform.
In making this motion, Mr. Walker said : Ladies and gentlemen, we
have ail been charmed by the diginity, urbanity, and wisdom of our
president in his official relations to this body, and with the clearness,
|)0\ver, and eloquence of his utterances, whenever he has favored the
congress by taking part in its discussions. As to the corresponding
secretary, we are so nuu^h indebted to his labors that language utterly
fails in attempting to express our obligations to him. Except for his
labors, the (Cincinnati congress would not have assembled ; nor the
international (congress liave been held in London; iu)r the ])resent con-
gress have convened in Jialtimore; nor (he \vori<; of prison reform have
gairuid such an impetus in this and other ('(uintiies. If a-ny nmii living,
he surely may be e(Migratulated on having accomplished sonu>thing
for the aiiuilioration of his r,u'A\
A few words in relation to this gathering: I came here not as an expert;
I had had a little experieiu-e, iind had given some attention to the sub-
ject, lint I came to learn, not to teach. 1 have enjoyed this congress;
have felt it to be good to l)e here, among men so unselfish. Jt does us
all good to meet with such men. J have known something of lialtimore,
VALEDICTORY ADDRESSES. 483
but I was not prepared to see its advanced condition in relation to the
great works of Christian charity. Brother Doll, to-day, indicated some-
thing very promising. God speed you in this great work for truth and
humanity. Another thing: we have no Friends in my neighborhood in
Michigan. But I have Quaker blood in my veins, and have attended
many a silent meeting. [ am glad to see some of the " Friends" here,
aiding the good cause, in the spirit of the great Master.
He called for the vote on the resolution of thanks to the president
and corresponding secretary.
Carried by acclamation.
Mr. Merrefield thanked Mr. Walker for his kindly greetings to his
Quaker ''Friends," and heartily reciprocated them in their name as well
as his own.
Dr. Wines bowed his thanks, simply remarking that this more than
paid for all the service he had rendered.
Governor Seymour said : I am deeply grateful for this kind expression
of your feeling. My claims to your gratitude are light indeed compared
to those of Dr. Wines. There have been features connected with this
convention very peculiar. Generally men meet to carry out their special
views. We met as strangers, with all shades of sentiment. Yet, with
abundant sources of difference, we have gone through our deliberations
in harmony. We have received the ideas of others with respect ; we have
advanced our own without arrogance or dogmatism. I think we may
say that there is something in the very cause we are engaged in which
has produced this concord and consideration for each other. We may
not have accomplished all we desired and hoped for the good of those
within prison, walls ; but we part with kinder feelings than those with
which we came together. It is sad to think that many of us have met
for the last time. It is my wish and hope that we may all go to our homes
in safety ; and that we may be successful in doing somethiug to advance
virtue, wisdom, reform, and happiness in society.
The president then declared this congress dissolved, and announced
that another congress, similar in character, would convene in the city
of Saiut Louis in the spring of 1874.
VI.— RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE COXGBESS.
As the i^ational Congress of Cincinnati, in 1870, adopted a comprehen-
sive declaration of principles of prison discipline, and the International
Congress of London, in 1872, re-atfirmed, substantially, though in a con-
densed form, the same platform, it was judged by the Congress of Balti-
more unnecessary to formally go over the ground again in 1873. Never-
theless, in the course of the proceedings, several members introduced
resolutions relating to special points connected with penitentiary or re-
formatory work. These were referred, as introduced, to the business
committee, which, on the last day of the session, reported them back,
in a form more or less modified, for the action of the congress. The
greater part of the last day's session was devoted to a consideration of
the questions raised by the resolutions, which, after having-* been
variously amended, were adopted, and are as follows :
I. Whereas, it is fully established by incontestable facts that intem-
perance in the use of intoxicating liquors is one of the principal incite-
ments to crime, as well as a chief cause of pauperism; and idiereas, it
484 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF ]873.
follows that in proportion as intemperance is suppressed, crime and its
terrible consequences will be prevented : Therefore,
Resolved, That this congress will welcome and encourage any wise
and efficient measures for the suppression of this great evil, whether by
an appeal to moral and religious principle, by voluntary effort, by legis-
lative action, or by the enforcement of existing laws.
II. Resolved, That the best interests of prison discipline demand that
the governments controlling prisons, whether state or municipal, should,
through their officers, have the entire control of the prisoners, both as to
their hours of work and their treatment ; and that any system of leasing
or of contract that does not secure this, can but be injurious to the best
interests of both the prisoners and the public.
III. Resolved, That prisoners' aid societies and other like associations
to befriend discharged prisoners and to assist them in i^rocuring homes
and employment, have proved most effective as an auxiliary in the
reformatory work, and that the organization of such societies, where
they do not exist, is most cordially recommended, and urged as a duty
upon the friends of prison reform.
IV. Resolved, That the great success which has attended the efforf
wherever made, and especially in Philadelphia, as shown by the papet
of Mr. Mullen, for the protection of persons charged with a violation or
law, by a careful investigation in eacti case before trial by a disinterested
agent appointed for that purpose, fully authorizes this congress to
recommend the establishment of such an agency in each State, and
especially in each large city, where, from the great number of such
charges and the haste with which many of them are disposed of, there
is danger that innocent persons may often be convicted of offenses
wrongfully charged upon them.
V. Whereas, in the present state of prison reform it is impossible to
determine, either with precision or unanimity, upon an ideal system of
prison discipline; and tchereas, if that were possible, radical changes in
existing institutions and their mode of administration would require
much time and great effort in their accomplishment : Therefore,
Resolved, That it becomes a matter of vital importance that the friends
of prison reform should make prompt, vigorous, and steadily persistent
efforts for the improvement of i)risons as thej^ actually exist and are
administered, and especially that they should seek to educate the public
mind as to the importance of elevating the character of the service en-
gaged in their administration, and the great necessity of securing for
each service men of the highest moral and intellectual character, by
providing a liberal compensation therefor, and by making the employ-
ment entirely independent of partisan influence, and also that they
should, by every wise and practicable effort, seek to show both the im-
l)ortance an<l the possibility of making our prisons thoroughly reforma-
tory in their cliaracter.
VI. Resolved, That experience has demonstrated that juvenile reform-
atoi'ics, houses of refuge and ]»rote('tion, and industrial schools for the
training of negle(;ted, vagrant, erring, and viciously inclined youths are
among tlie most ellectivcr nutans yet (levised for the saving of such youths
from a life of crime ; and tliat it is essential to the highest success of
such institutions that tlu'V should not, eitiier in theory or in fact, be or
be considered as ])enal in their eliaiacter, but ratiier as temporary homes
for their inmates, wiiose treatment should approximate as nearly as i>os-
sible to the i)arental system.
OFFICERS BOARD OF DIRECTORS. 485
VII.— THE NATIONAL PRISON ASSOCIATION OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
1. — Officers of the association for 1873.
President. — Hou. Horatio Seymour, Utica, New York.
Vice-Presidenii^. — Hon. James G, Blaine, Speaker United States House
of Representatives, Augusta, Maine; Hon. Daniel Haines, Hamburgh,
New Jersey ; Henry W. Bellows, D. D., 232 East Fifteenth street. New
York ; General Amos Pilsburj^, Superintendent Albany Penitentiary^
Albany, New York; Hon. Conrad Baker, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Treasurer. — Salem H. Wales, 520 Fifth avenue, New York.
Corresponding Secretary. — E. C. AYiues, D. D., LL.D. ; office 320 Broad
way; residence, Irvington, New York.
Recording Secretary. — Bradford K. Peirce, D.D., Editor Zion's Herald,
Boston, Massachusetts.
2. — Board of directors.
Samuel Alliuson, Yardville, New Jersey.
William H. Aspinwall, 33 University Place, New York.
Hon. Conrad Baker, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Henry W. Bellows, D. D., 232 East Fifteenth stseet, New York.
Hou. James G. Blaine, Speaker United States House of Representa-
tives, Augusta, Maine.
Rev. Charles L. Brace, secretary Children's Aid Society, 19 East
Fourth street. New York.
Z. R. Brock way, Superintendent Detroit House of Correction, Detroit,
Michigan.
James Brown, esq., 38 East Thirty-seventh street. New York.
Charles F. Coffin, president board of directors, House of Refuge, Rich-
mond, Indiana.
Hon. John E. Develin, New York.
Hon. Theodore W. D wight, LL. D,, President Columbia College Law
School, 37 Lafayette Place, New York.
G. S. Griffith, Baltimore, Maryland.
Hon. Daniel Haines, Hamburgh, New Jersey.
E. W. Hatch, M. D., Superintendent State Reform School, "West Meri-
den, Connecticut.
Hon. R. B. Hays, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Morris K. Jesup, 59 Liberty street. New York.
John Taylor Johnston, 110 Liberty street. New York.
A. J. Ourt, M. D., corresponding secretary board of public charities,
737 Walnut street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
B. K. Peirce, D. D., Editor Zion's Herald, Boston, Massachusetts.
General Amos Pilsburj^, Superintendent Albany Penitentiary, Albany,
New York.
F. B. Sanborn, Editor, Concord, Massachusetts.
Hon. Horatio Seymour, Utica, New York.
Hon. L. Stanford, Sacramento, California.
Oliver S. Strong, president board of managers New York House of
Refuge, 61 Bible House, New York.
Salem H. Wales, 520 Fifth avenue.
Hou. and Rev. G. William Welker, Goldsborough, North Carolina.
A. R. Wetmore, president board of managers New York Juvenile
Asylum, 305 Greenwich street, New York.
486 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
Hon. E. K. White, Louisville, Kentucky.
John E. Williams, President Metropolitan National Bank, 108
Broadway, New York.
E. C. Wines, D. D., LL. D., 320 Broadway, New York.
3. — Standing committees.
1. Executive committee. — The jiresident, H. Seymour; treasurer, S.
H. Wales, and secretary, E. C. Wines, ex officio ; H. W. Bellows, Kev.
Charles L. Brace, John E. Develin, and James Brown.
2. Committee on criminal-law reform. — H. Seymour, Daniel Haines,
Conrad Baker, James G. Blaine, Theodore W. Dwight, E. B. Hayes.
3. Committee on jirison discipline. — F. B. Sanborn, Z. E. Brockway,
Amos Pilsbury, A. J. Ourt, G. William Welker.
4. Committee onjuvinile delinquency. — B. K. Peiree, C. L. Brace, O. S.
Strong, E. W. Hatch, A. E. Wetmore.
5. Committee on discharged priHoners. — Daniel Haines, Samuel AUinson,
Charles Coffin, E. K. White, G. S. Griffith.
4. — CORKESPONDING ]ME]MBERS.
Miss Mary Carpenter, Eed Lodge Eeformatory, Bristol, England.
Miss Florence Nightingale, South street, London, England.
Eight Hon. Sir Walter Crofton, C. B., Hillingdon, Uxbridge, England.
Frederic Hill, esq., 27 Thurlow Eoad, Hampstead, Loudon, England.
Edwin Hill, esq.. No. 1 Saint Mark's Square, Eegent's Park, London,
England.
Miss Florence Hill, Bristol, England.
Miss Joanna Margaret Hill, Birmingham, England.
Alfred Aspland, esq., Dukenfield, Ashton-under-Lyne, England.
William Tallack, esq., No. 5 Bishopsgate street. Without, London,
England.
Charles Ford, esq., 24 New street. Spring Gardens, London, England.
Eev. Sydney Turner, inspector of reformatories, 15 Parliament street,
London, England.
W. L. Sargant, esq., Birmingham, England.
Edwin Chadwick, esq., C. B. Mortlake, England.
A. Angus Croll, esq., Granard Park, Putney, England.
Miss Frances Power Cobbe, 26 Hereford Square, Loudon, England.
George W. Hastings, esq., 1 Adam street, Adelphi, Loudon, Eng-
land.
T. B. LI. Baker, Hardwicke Court, Gloucester, England.
T. L. Murray Browne, esq., No. 4 Old Square, Lincoln's Inn, London,
England.
Edwin Pears, esq'., Secretary of British Social Science xlssociatiou.
No. 1 Adam street, Adelphi, London, England.
Major E. F. ]JuCaue, sur\'eyor-general of i>risons. No. 44 Parliameut
street, London, England.
John Lentaigne, esq., inspector of county aiul borough Jails, Dublin,
Ireland.
Caj)tain J. Barlow, director of convict ])risous, Dul)lin, Ireland.
M. Jionneville de Maisangy, 7 i"ue Penthirvre, Paris, France.
M. Victor I5ournat, 20 rue Jacob, l*aris, France.
M. Eol)in, (i)asteur,) 21 rue Piat, J>elleville, Paris, France.
CORRESPONDING MEMBERS LIFE-DIRECTORS LIFE-MEMBERS. 487
M. J. Jaillaut, director of prisoners, ministry of the interior, Paris,
France.
M. Jules (le Lamarque, chief of bureau, direction of prisons, Paris,
Prance.
Dr. Prosper Despiue, 12 rue du Loisir, Marseilles, France.
M. Charles Lucas, member of the Institute, Paris, France.
M. le Vicompt d'Haussonville, member of the national assembly, rue
St. Dominique, Paris, France.
M. Aug'uste Demetz, 92 rue de la Yictoire, Paris, France.
M. Berdeu, administrator of prisons, Brussels, Belgium.
M. J. Stevens, inspector-general of prisons, Brussels, Belgium.
M. Auguste Visschers, 106 rue Royale, Brussels, Belgium.
Mr. Alstorphius Greveliuk, the Hague, Netherlands.
Eev. Dr. Laurillard, secretary of the Netherlands Prison Society,
Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Mr. B. J. Ploos Von Amstel, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Dr. Guillaume, director of the penitentiary, Neufchatel, Switzerland.
Mr. Max Wirth, chief of the statistical bureau, Berne, Switzerland.
Signor F. Cardon, director-general of prisons, Rome, Italy.
Signer Mar. Bettrani-Scalia, inspector-general of prisons, Rome, Italy.
Baron Franz von Holtzendorff, professor of law in the University of
Berlin, Berlin, Prussia.
Rev. Dr. Wichern, director of the Rauhe Haus, Horn, near Hamburg,
Germany.
Mr. Fr. Bruiin, director of prisons, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Senhor Andre Fleury, secretary of the committee of inspection of the
house of correction, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
5. — Life directors by the contribution of two hundred dol-
lars OR UPWARD, at one TIME, TO THE FUNDS OF THE ASSOCIA-
TION.
Timothy M. Allyn, Hartford, Connecticut.
James Brown, New York.
Morris K. Jesnp, New York.
W. Soldatenkoff, St. Petersburg, Russia.
E. C. Wines, New York.
-C. — Life members by the contribution of one hundred dol-
lars OR UPWARD AT ONE TIME.
Horatio Seymour, Utica, New York.
William H. Aspiuwall, New York.
W. Amor}', Boston, Massachusetts.
H. K. Corning, New York.
D. Denny, Boston, Massachusetts.
Edward Earle, Worcester, Massachusetts.
George B- Emerson, Boston, Massachusetts. .
Mrs. Mary A. Holden, Providence, Rhode Island.
Joseph Rowland, Matteawan, New York.
John Taylor Johnston, New York.
Amos Pilsbury, Albany, New York.
Jonathan Sturges, New York.
N. Thayer, Boston, Massachusetts.
C. H. Shipman, Brooklvn, New York.
B. G. Clarke, New York.
Miss M. W. Wills, Hartford, Connecticut.
488 NATIONAL PKISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1673.
7. — Treasurer's report for two years.
The Xat'wiial Prison Association in account icith S. H. Wales, trcasiiret
Cr.
April 30, 1873. By amount of donations from May, 1871, to May, 1873 $7, 068 85
amount of appropriation by United States Congress 5. 000 00
loan 4,925 00
16, 993 85
Dr.
April 30, 1873. To cash paid for expenses connected •with the International
Penitentiary Congress and for salaries $15, 000 00
officeexpenses,includingreut, fuel, light, attendance, &c. 80a 00
cash paid for printing and expenses connected with two
annual reports a. 594 26
cash paid for stationery 64 04
cash paid for postage, telegraphing, and expressage 264 43
cash paid for oftice-furniture 141 97
cash paid for traveling expenses 105 25
cash paid miscellaneous expenses 14 80
balance to new account 85
16,993 85.
. E. E.
8.— Contributions to the National Prison Association fro:m:
May, 1871, TO May, 1873.
CaVifornia.
Mrs. L. Hutchison, Bishop Creek -. $10
Connecticut.
Timothy M. Allyn, Hartford $500
.James E. English, New Haven 25
R. S. Fellowes, New Haven 20
Kev. Thos. K. Fessenden, Farmington 20
Miss M. W. Wells, Hartford 125
Rev. Geo. Wooding, Wethersfield 10
700'
Illinois.
George W. Perkins, Poutiac 10
Charles E. Feltou, Chicago 10
20
Indiana.
Charles F. Coffin, Richmond 20
loir a.
James McCartey, Salem 10'
Kcntuclif.
('yniH Mendenhall, Covington 10
J'. Caldwell, Louisville 10
20'
Man/land.
W. R. Lirwohi, Baltimore ...' ". 10
(;. S. Grillith 10
• 20'
Massachusetts.
W. Aniory, P.ostoii • 100
William .J. iSowditoli, Boston 10
(Iridic V .J. I'\ I'.ryaut, I'ostori 20
John W. Candler, Boston 50
( 'ash, Boston 10
D. Denny, Boston 100
Mrs. Henry V. Durunt, Boston , 50
CONTRIBUTIONS FOR 187J AND 1872. 489
Edward Earle, Worcester .filOO
Geo. B. Emerson, Boston 100
Charles O. Foster, Boston 25
*A. Hardy, Boston 25
S. G. Howe, Boston 10
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Boston ., 10
Samuel Johnson, Boston 10
H. P. Kidder, Boston 50
O. W. Peabody, Boston 50
Avery Plumer, Boston 10
M. S. Scudder, Boston 20
E. S. Tobey, Boston 50
Nathaniel Thayer, Boston 100
J. C.Tyler, Boston 10
Samnel D. Warren, Boston 50
Mrs. Elizabeth Earns worth, Groton 10
$970
Micliigau.
O. Goldsmith, Detroit 10
H.V.N. Lothrop, Detroit 10
R. McLelland, Detroit 1 10
James McMillen , Detroit 10
John S. Newberry, Detroit 10
C. I. Walker, Detroit 20
Rev. Charles Johnson, Lansinj^ 10
— 80
Minnesoia.
F. W. Phelps, Winona 10
Missouri.
Mrs. A. W^ Richardson 10
NtbrasTca.
H. C. Campbellj Lincoln 10
New Sampshire.
Rev. William Clark, D. D., Andover 10
Xciv Jersey.
D. Haines 10
Xcw Yorl\
Brother Teliow 10
William H. Aspinwall, New York , 200
James Brown, New York 600
Stewart Brown, New York 150
B. G. Clarke 175
H. K. Corning, New York 150
Erastus Corning, Albany 200
Cash 10
Winthrop S. Gilman, New York 150
Bishop E. S. Janes, D. D 10
Joseph Howland, Matteawan 200
James Hunter, New York 20
Richard Irvin 75
Morris K. Jesup, New York 250
W. R. Janeway 25
John Taylor Johnston, New York 200
Henry T. Morgan, New York 75
A. S. McDonald 20
W. C. Palmer 20
Amos Pilsbury, Albany 100
H. F. Phinney, Cooperstown 25
Rev. George L. Prentiss, D.D 10
Guy Richards, New York 65
George Sterry 25
Horatio Seymour, Utica 100
490 NATIONAL PRISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1873.
Jonathan Stnro;es, New York $150
Rev. William M. Paxton, D. D 10
E. C. Wines, New York 400
Rt. Rev. Horatio Potter, D. D 10 *
John David Wolle, New York 200
Weston & Gray, New York 100
Salem H. Wales, New York 150
R. W. Weston 50
John E. Williams, New York 50
C. H. Shipman, Brooklvn.. 200
|4, 185 00
Ohio.
Murray Shipley, Cincinnati 10
G. E. Howe, Lancaster 10
Mrs. R. A. S. Janney, Columbus 10
R. B. Hayes, Cincinnati 10
A. H.Monfort 10
50 00
Fennsylvania.
Henry Cordier , Claremont, AJleghenv County .50
T. H.'Ne vin, Allegheny ". 10
60 00
Ehodc Island.
A. E. Burnside, Providence 10
A. C. Barstow, Providence 20
Jacob Dunuell, Pawtucket 20
AV. W. Hojipin, Providence 10
Mrs. Mary A. Holden, Providence : 100
Robert H. Ives, Providence 60
William J. King, Providence 40
Mrs. Henry Lippitt, Providence 20
Jesse Metcalf, Providence 10
Seth Padelford, Providence 10
Mrs. G. M. Richmond, Providence 30
Miss Caroline Richmond, Providence 20
A. & W. Sprague, Providence 100
James Y. Smith &. Nichol, Providence 40
Amos D. Smith, Providence 10
H. J. Steere, Providence 10
James Tillinghast, Providence 20
Royal C. Taft, Providence 20
Rev. Augustus Woodbury, Providence 20
570 00
West Virginia.
Thomas P. Shallcross, Mounds ville 10 00
Wisconsin .
Edwin Ilurlbut, Oconomowoc 10 00
United States.
Appropriation by Congress , 5, 000 00
Surplus alter iiayiug expenses of Baltimore Congress 73 85
Russia.
W. Soldatenkoft; St. Petersburg 200 00
'i'otal contributions for the two years 7.068 85
0. — Act of incorporation.
The people of ihc ^Sfate of Nciv Yorl; represented in .senate and assembly,
do enact a.s follows :
Section 1. Horatio Seymour, Theodore W. Dwi^lit, Francis Lieber,
Amos JMlsl)ury, .lames lirowii, AVilliam II. Asi)iuwall, John Taylor
Johnston, .loliii E. Williams, Theodore Koosevelt, JMorris K. Jesup,
CONSTITUTION BY-LAWS. 491
Isaac Bell, James G. Blaine, Conrad Baker, Eutherford B. Hayes,
Daniel Haines, Enoch 0. Wines, Oliver S. Strou*g, Bradford K. Peirce,
Charles L, Brace, Charles F. Coffin, Howard Potter, Henry S. Terbell,
Z. 11. Brockway, Frank B. Sanborn, Edward W. Hatch, and their asso-
ciates and successors in office, are hereby constituted a body corporate
and politic, by the name of " The National Prison Association of the
United States of America," whose duty it shall be to consider and rec-
ommend i)lans for the promotion of the objects following ; that is to
say —
1. The amelioration of the laws in relation to i^ublic offenses and
offenders, and the modes of procedure by which such laws are enforced.
2. The improvement of the ])ena!, correctional, and reformatory insti-
tutions throughout the country, and the government, management, and
discipline thereof, including the appointment of boards of control and
of other officers.
3. The care of, and providing suitable and remunerative employment
for, discharged prisoners, and especially such as may or shall have given
evidence of a reformation of life.
Sec. 2. The principal place of business of the said corporation shall
be in city of New York; and the management and disposition of its
affairs, property, and funds shall be vested in the persons named in the
first section of this act, and their associates and their successors in office,
who shall remain in office for such period, and be displaced and suc-
ceeded by others to be elected at the times and in the manner prescribed
by the by-laws. The number of members to constitute a quorum shall
be fixed by the by-laws.
Sec. 3. The said corporation shall have power to purchase or take by
gift, grant, devise, or bequest, real and personal property to an amount
not exceeding three hundred thousand dollars, subject to the provisions
of chapter three hundred and sixty of the laws of eighteen hundred and
sixty.
Sec. 4. The said corporation shall have and possess all the general
powers, and be subject to all the liabilities, contained in the third title
of chapter eighteen of the first part of the Kevised Statutes.
Sec. 5. This act shall take effect immediately.
State of New York,
Office of the Secretary of State, ss :
I have compared the preceding with the original law on file in this
office, and do hereby certify that the same is a correct transcript there-
from, and of the whole of said original law.
Given under my hand and seal of office at the city of Albany, this
twenty-ninth day of April, In the year one thousand eight hundred and
seventvone.
DEIDRICH WILLERS,
Deputy Secretary of State.
10. — Constitution.
Article I. This Association shall be called the National' Prison As-
sociation of the United States of America, and its objects shall be —
1. The amelioration of the laws in relation to public offenses and
offenders, and the modes of procedure by which such laws are enforced.
2. The improvement of the penal, correctional, and reformatory institu-
tions throughout the country, and of the government, management, and
492 NATIONAL PEISON REFORM CONGRESS OF 1673
discipline thereof, including the appointment of boards of control and
of other officers. *
3. The care of, and providing suitable and remunerative employment
for, discharged prisoners, and especially snch as may or shall have given,
evidence of a reformation of life.
Art. II. The officers of the association shall be a president, five vice-
presidents, a corresponding secretary, a recording secretary, a treasurer,
and a board of directors, not exceeding thirty in number, of which the
officers above named shall be ex officio members.
Art. III. There shall be the following standing committees, namely:
An executive committee, of which the president shall be ex officio chair-
man, the recording secretary ex officio secretary, and the corresponding
secretary and treasurer ex officio members; a committee on criminal law
reform; a committee on prison discipline ; a committee on juvenile de-
linquency ; and a committee on discharged prisoners.
Art. IV. The boartl of directors, of whom any five members shall
constitute a quorum — two of said members being officers of the associa-
tion— shall meet semi-annually, and in the interval of its meetings its
powers shall be exercised by the executive committee, which shall fix
its own time of meeting.
Art. Y. Committees of correspondence shall be organized in the sev-
eral States, as may be found practicable ; and the formation of State
associations shall be encouraged.
Art. VI. Any person contributing annually to the funds of the asso-
ciation not less than ten dollars shall be a member thereof; a contribu-
tion of one hundred dollars at any one time shall constitute the contrib-
utor a life member ; and a contribution of two hundred dollars at any
one time shall entitle the contributor to be a life director. Correspond-
ing members may be appointed by the board of directors or by the ex-
ecutive committee. The power of electing officers shall be confined to
the corporate members of the association.
Art. VII. The association shall hold an annual meeting at such time
and place as the executive committee shall appoint, on which occasion
the several standing committees, the corresponding secretary, and the
treasurer shall submit annual reports. Special meetings may be called
by the president in his discretion, and shall be called by him whenever
he is requested to do so by'anj' three members of the board.
Art. VIII. All officers of the association shall be elected at the
annual meeting or gome adjournment thereof; but vacancies occurring
after the annual meeting may be filled by the board of directors, who
shall also appoint all committees not chosen at the annual meeting; and
all officers shall hold over till their successors are chosen.
Art. IX. The executive committee shall consist of seven members of
the board of directors — the president, the recording secretary, the cor-
responding secretary, and the treasurer being ex officio members — any
tlireoof whom shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of busi-
ness.
Art. X. Tliis constitution may be amended by vote of a majority of
the members of the association at any meeting thereof: Provided, That
notice of tlie i)roposed amendment shall have been given at the next
preceding meeting.
BY-LAWS. 493
11. — By-laws.
I. The order of business at eacli stated meeting of the board sball be
as follows:
1. Reading of the minutes.
2. Report of the treasurer.
3. Report of the corresponding secretary.
4. Reports from standing committees.
5. Reports from special committees.
C. Miscellaneous business.
II. The president, corresponding secretary, recording secretary, and
treasurer shall perform the customary duties of their respective offices.
III. The president shall appoint the committees, unless otherwise
ordered by the association.
IV. The president shall decide questions of order, subject to an appeal ;
and the rules of order shall be those in Cushing's Manual, so far as they
may be applicable,
V. No bills shall be paid by the treasurer unless approved and signed
by the chairman of the executive committee, or by some other member
of said committee designated by him.
YI. No alteration shall be made in these by-laws, except on notice of
the proposed amendment given at a previous meeting of the board.
NOV 8,98,
REC'D MLC
OCT 1 2 1962
S FEB 2 2
RENEWAL
^T
MAR
WAR
MAY 1 2 1935
m
rD LD-URl
7 1977
2 '3 W/J
Form L-9-10m-2,'31
DEC
DISC
APR
'D LD-UI?C
13 1977
lARGE-lM
3 197P
1 6 1979
(fCr 01 1990
*fC'D LO-URI.
•Oy 26M0
/
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